Defect-induced performance degradation of 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diode particle detectors

Abstract

The formation and evolution of defects in 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diode high-energy particle detectors have been investigated and correlated with the detectors' properties. Low temperature annealing at 300 °C is found to significantly recover the charge collection efficiency as degraded by 1 MeV electron irradiation. At higher temperatures, an anneal-induced degradation in the detector's performance is observed. Current-voltage, capacitance-voltage, and deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements are used to ascertain the effect of defects on the detector performance. The latter reveals that the DLTS defect levels, EH1 and EH3, are related to the initial recovery of the charge collection efficiency.

Radiation hardness of n-type SiC Schottky barrier diodes irradiated with MeV He ion microbeam

“…Those primary defects might annihilate or reorganize themselves with impurities to form stable deep defects. Defect accumulation in reasonably low concentrations (well below an extended defect formation threshold value) might modify electronic transport properties of charge carriers introduced into active region of a device, and consequently alter or deteriorate its performance [3][4][5][6][7][8][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…These defects are being created during: (a) semiconductor growth process, (b) electronic device fabrication and (c) operation in harsh environments. We focus our attention on defects created in semiconductor devices exposed to irradiation by ions [3][4][5]8] and electrons [6,7] in the MeV energy range.…”

“…In this study we investigate the radiation hardness of single crystal 4H-SiC material for particle detection in intense radiation conditions. The radiation hardness of SiC detectors has been studied using irradiation with neutrons [14], protons [11][12][13]16], gamma photons [12], electrons [6,12,13], light ions [11] and heavy ions [11,15].…”

Effect of Z1/2, EH5, and Ci1 deep defects on the performance of n-type 4H-SiC epitaxial layers Schottky detectors: Alpha spectroscopy and deep level transient spectroscopy studies

“…Several groups have reported the presence of a similar defect level often designated as Z 1/2 . [26][27][28][29][30] However, the exact microscopic structure is still unknown and several theories exist in the literature regarding the probable structure of Z 1/2 centers. As summarized by Zhang et al, 24 Z 1/2 is most likely related to defect complexes involving equal number of carbon and silicon sites.…”

Development of microbeam technology to expand applications at TIARA

“…Recently, charge-transient spectroscopy was performed by using alpha particles from a radiation source and the heavyion microbeam for characterising transient charge collection in a device and to evaluate any defects induced in the crystal by the radiation. This technique was used to study the characteristics of silicon carbide (SiC) or diamond, which are wide-band-gap semiconductors, for next-generation highly efficient power devices [39][40][41][42]. For these studies, the end station was modified to allow the temperature of the semiconductor specimen to be varied over a wide range from 240 to 350 K [43].…”