Thermal and radiation response of 4H–SiC Schottky diodes with direct-write electrical contacts

Abstract

A high-sensitivity 4H–SiC temperature sensor and an alpha detector have been fabricated using additively printed metal contacts. The surface morphology and electrical conductivity of the printed electrodes were established prior to Schottky diode development. 4H–SiC Schottky diodes with direct-write printed silver contacts on the 5 μm-thick epilayer on 4H–SiC were characterized electrically in terms of the forward and reverse current–voltage and high-frequency capacitance–voltage characteristics. The turn-on voltage of the Schottky diodes, as established from the forward current–voltage characteristics measured up to a temperature of 400 °C, showed a linear temperature dependence. Schottky diodes with direct-write printed Ag electrodes were able to measure alpha particles emitted from Americium-241. The high temperature and radiation response of the Schottky diodes show their suitability for multi-modal sensor fusion on the 4H–SiC platform for harsh environment applications.

Thorough Wide-Temperature-Range Analysis of Pt/SiC and Cr/SiC Schottky Contact Non-Uniformity

“…For such hostile environments, silicon carbide (SiC)-based sensors have emerged as a promising solution [3], especially for applications involving gas concentration measurement [7,8] or temperature sensing [3,[9][10][11][12]. Due to the wide bandgap (3.24 eV for 4H-SiC) and low intrinsic carrier concentration, SiC devices can operate at temperatures far above the limits for conventional semiconductors [3].…”

High-temperature ionic logic gates composed of an ionic rectifying solid–electrolyte interface

“…Instead of Si-based semiconductors, wide band gap semiconductors such as SiC, GaN, AlN and diamond have been proposed for high temperature applications and widely studied. [3][4][5][6][7][8] Although these devices work properly at relatively high temperatures, degradation due to thermal excitation of electron is inevitable in semiconductor-based devices. In this work, we propose the utilization of ceramic-based ionic conductors for the realization of the ultra-high temperature data collection technology.…”

Synthesis of SiC/ graphene nanosheet composites by helicon wave plasma*

“…Silicon carbide (SiC) is a novel composite material with superior properties such as low density, high hardness, high strength, chemical inertness, high thermal conductivity (3 W/cm•K-5 W/cm•K) and a high breakdown field strength (2.0 MV/cm). [1,2] Many published reports covered the synthesis of nanocrystalline SiC and studying its photoluminescence (PL) properties. [3][4][5] SiC offers a unique combination of structural and electrical characteristics for applications in harsh environments such as high temperature and complex electromagnetic fields.…”