Silicon carbide (SiC) power devices are attracting increasing attention for high-voltage and high-efficiency applications due to their superior material properties. However, achieving an optimal trade-off between specific on-resistance (Ron,sp) and breakdown voltage (BV) remains a key design challenge in planar MOSFET structures. In this study, twodimensional TCAD simulations were conducted to investigate the impact of varying the doping concentrations of the P-well (from 3 × 1017 to 6 × 1017 cm-3) and JFET regions (from 1 × 1016 to 7 × 1016 cm-3) on the electrical characteristics of 2.4 kVclass planar SiC MOSFETs. To maintain comparable BV conditions for 2.4 kV operation, two groups with P-well doping concentrations of 4.5 × 1017 cm-3 and 5.3 × 1017 cm-3 were analyzed and compared. When the P-well and JFET doping concentrations were 4.5 × 1017 cm-3 and 1.5 × 1016 cm-3, respectively, the simulated Ron,sp and BV were 1.41 mΩ·cm2 and 3,150 V. In contrast, with P-well and JFET doping concentrations of 5.3 × 1017 cm-3 and 5.0 × 1016 cm-3, the Ron,sp was reduced to 1.31 mΩ·cm2 while the BV slightly increased to 3,200 V. Based on these results, an optimized device structure was proposed, demonstrating its potential for integration into high-voltage SiC-based power systems. This study provides practical design insights and is expected to contribute to the advancement of wide bandgap semiconductor technologies for next-generation power electronics.
Department of Electric Materials Engineering, Kwangwoon University, Seoul 01897, Korea (Received June 13, 2024; Revised July 8, 2024; Accepted July 10, 2024) Abstract: Wide bandgap (WBG) devices, especially SiC, are gaining traction as materials for high-power EV conversion devices due to their superior efficiency and switching capabilities compared to Si-based power devices. SiC allows for high power, high temperature, and high frequency applications because of its outstanding thermal conductivity, saturation velocity, and dielectric breakdown field. SiC-based MPS diodes combine the advantages of SiC-based SBDs and PiN diodes, allowing high-frequency switching operation with low leakage currents under high voltage conditions. However, MPS diodes exhibit snapback phenomena influenced by the P+ region’s size, necessitating optimization. A TCAD simulation studied the impact of the P+ region’s depth and width on MPS diode performance. Increasing the P+ width raised the On-specific resistance (Ron,sp) and lowered the maximum voltage during snapback (Vsnap). Increasing the depth decreased both Breakdown voltage (BV) and Vsnap. A trade-off between the semiconductor performance index BFOM and Vsnap was identified, leading to optimized dimensions. The optimized MPS diode shows a low Vsnap of about 3.89 V and a high BFOM of 1.72 GW·㎠, highlighting its potential as a next-generation high-performance power conversion device.
Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) is emerging as a next-generation power semiconductor material due to its excellent electrical properties, including an ultra-wide bandgap of approximately 4.8 eV and a breakdown electric field of about 7 MV/cm. However, its low thermal conductivity of around 0.13 W/cmK presents significant challenges to the performance and reliability of Ga₂O₃- based devices. In this study, we employed the Silvaco TCAD simulator to analyze the thermal and electrical characteristics of Ga₂O₃ Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with heat sinks of varying thermal conductivities. The results demonstrate that heat sinks with higher thermal conductivity effectively mitigate the temperature rise in the device, leading to an increase in current density. The limitation in heat dissipation due to parasitic on-state resistance not only affects device performance but also impacts longterm reliability. Therefore, this study contributes to the development of effective thermal management strategies for Ga₂O₃-based power semiconductors.
High-energy bandgap material silicon carbide (SiC) is gaining attention as a next-generation power semiconductor material, and in particular, SiC-based MOSFETs are developed as representative power semiconductors to increase the breakdown voltage (BV) of conventional planar structures. However, as the size of SJ (Super Junction) MOSFET devices decreases and the depth of pillars increases, it becomes challenging to uniformly form the doping concentration of pillars. Therefore, a structure with different doping concentrations segmented within the pillar is being researched. Using Silvaco TCAD simulation, a SJ VVD (vertical variation doping profile) MOSFET with three different doping concentrations in the pillar was studied. Simulations were conducted for the width of the pillar and the doping concentration of N-epi, revealing that as the width of the pillar increases, the depletion region widens, leading to an increase in on-specific resistance (Ron,sp) and breakdown voltage (BV). Additionally, as the doping concentration of N-epi increases, the number of carriers increases, and the depletion region narrows, resulting in a decrease in Ron,sp and BV. The optimized SJ VVD MOSFET exhibits a very high figure of merit (BFOM) of 13,400 KW/cm2, indicating excellent performance characteristics and suggesting its potential as a next-generation highperformance power device suitable for practical applications.
Fin-type SONOS (silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon) flash memory has emerged as novel devices having superior controls over short channel effects(SCE) than the conventional SONOS flash memory devices. However despite these advantages, these also exhibit undesirable characteristics such as corner effect. Usually, the corner effect deteriorates the performance by increasing the leakage current. In this paper, the corner effect of fin-type SONOS flash memory devices is investigate by 3D Process and device simulation and their electrical characteristics are compared to conventional SONOS devices. The corner effect has been observed in fin-type SONOS device. The reason why the memory characteristic in fin-type SONOS flash memory device is not improved, might be due to existing undesirable effect such as corner effect as well as the mutual interference of electric field in the fin-type structure as reported previously.