Electrical characteristics of Mo/4H-SiC Schottky diodes having ion-implanted guard rings: Temperature and implant-dose dependence

The electrical characteristics of ion-implanted guard rings for molybdenum (Mo) Schottky diodes on 4H-SiC are analyzed on the basis of the standard thermionic emission model and the assumption of a Gaussian distribution of the barrier height. For edge termination, high-resistivity guard rings manufactured by carbon and aluminum ion-implanted areas were used. Extractions of barrier heights of molybdenum on silicon carbide (4H-SiC) Schottky diodes have been performed on structures with various gate metallization, using both current-voltage-temperature (I-V-T) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. Characteristic features of the Schottky barrier height (SBH) are considered in relation to the specific dose of the carbon- or aluminum-implanted guard ring. Contacts showed excellent Schottky behavior ideality factors between 1.02 and 1.24 in the range of 303-473 K. The measured SBHs were between 0.92 and 1.17 eV in the same temperature range from I-V-T characteristics. The variations in the barrier height, which is significantly temperature- and implantation-dose- dependent, are well fitted to a single Gaussian distribution function. Experimental results agree reasonably well by using this approach, particularly for carbon implantation dose of 1.75 × 10¹⁴ cm^-2, and a mean barrier height () of 1.22 eV and zero bias standard deviation σ₀ = 0.067 V have been obtained. Furthermore, the modified Richardson plot according to the Gaussian distribution model resulted in a mean barrier height () and a Richardson constant (A*) of 1.22 eV and 148 A cm^-2 K^-2, respectively. The A* value obtained from this plot is in very close agreement with the theoretical value of 146 A cm ^-2 K^-2 for n-type 4H-SiC. Therefore, it has been concluded that the temperature dependence of the forward (I-V) characteristics of the Mo/4H-SiC contacts can be successfully explained on the basis of a thermionic emission conduction mechanism with Guassianly distributed barriers.