• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2009

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising material for power device applications due to its wide band gap (3.26 eV for 4H-SiC), high critical electric field and excellent thermal conductivity. The Schottky barrier diode is the representative high-power device that is currently available commercially. A field plate edge-terminated 4H-SiC was fabricated using a lift-off process for opening the Schottky contacts. In this case, Ni/Ti dual-metal contacts were unintentionally formed at the edge of the Schottky contacts and resulted in the degradation of the electrical properties of the diodes. The breakdown voltage and Schottky barrier height (SBH, ${\Phi}_B$) was 107 V and 0.67 eV, respectively. To form homogeneous single-metal Ni/4H-SiC Schottky contacts, a deposition and etching method was employed, and the electrical properties of the diodes were improved. The modified SBDs showed enhanced electrical properties, as witnessed by a breakdown voltage of 635 V, a Schottky barrier height of ${\Phi}_B$=1.48 eV, an ideality factor of n=1.04 (close to one), a forward voltage drop of $V_F$=1.6 V, a specific on resistance of $R_{on}=2.1m{\Omega}-cm^2$ and a power loss of $P_L=79.6Wcm^{-2}$.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2004

It is essential to increase the switching speed of power devices to reduce the energy loss because high frequency is commonly used in power device operation these days. In this work electron irradiation has been conducted to reduce the lifetime of minority carriers and thereby to increase the switching speed of a$p^+- n^-$ junction diode. Effects of electron irradiation on the electrical properties of the diode are reported The switching speed is effectively increased. Also the junction leakages and the forward voltage drop which are anticipated to increase are found to be negligible in the $p^+- n^-$ junction diodes irradiated with the optimum energy and dose. The analysis results of DLTS and C-V profiling indicate that the defects induced by electron irradiation in the silicon substrate are donor-like ones which have the energy levels of 0.284 eV and 0.483 eV. Considering all the experimental results in this study, it might be concluded that electron irradiation is a very useful technique in improving the switching speed and thereby reducing the energy loss of $p^+- n^-$ junction diode power devices.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.10-15
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• 2002

In this paper, the electrical characteristics of fabricated p+-n junction diode are demonstrated and interpreted with different theoretical calculations. Dopants distribution by boron ion implantation on silicon wafer were simulated with TRIM-code and ICECaEM simulator. In order to make electrical activation of implanted carriers, thermal annealing treatments are carried out by RTP method for 1min. at $1000^{circ}C$ under inert $N_2$ gas condition. In this case, profiles of dopants distribution before and after heat treatments in the substrate are observed from computer simulations. In the I-V characteristics of fabricated diodes, an analytical description method of a new triangular junction model is demonstrated and the results with calculated triangular junction are compared with measured data and theoretical calculated results of abrupt junction. Forward voltage drop with new triangular junction model is lower than the case of abrupt junction model. In the C-V characteristics of diode, the calculated data are compared with the measured data. Another I-V characteristics of diodes are measured after proton implantation in electrical isolation method instead of conventional etching method. From the measured data, the turn-on characteristics after proton implantation is more improved than before proton implantation. Also the C-V characteristics of diode are compared with the measured data before proton implantation. From the results of measured data, reasonable deviations are showed. But the C-V characteristics of diode after proton implantation are deviated greatly from the calculated data because of leakage currents in defect regions and layer shift of depletion by proton implantation.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.67-75
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• 2015

PV module is conventionally connected in series with some solar cell to adjust the output of module. Some bypass diodes in module are installed to prevent module from hot spot and mismatch power loss. However, bypass diode in module exposed outdoor is easily damaged by surge voltage. In this paper, we study the thermal and electrical characteristics change of module with damaged bypass diode to easily find module with damaged bypass diode in photovoltaic system consisting of many modules. Firstly, the temperature change of bypass diode is measured according to forward and reverse bias current flowing through bypass diode. The maximum surface temperature of damaged bypass diode applied reverse bias is higher than that of normal bypass diode despite flowing equal current. Also, the output change of module with and without damaged bypass diode is observed. The output of module with damaged bypass diode is proportionally reduced by the total number of connected solar cells per one bypass diode. Lastly, the distribution temperature of module with damaged bypass diode is confirmed by IR camera. Temperature of all solar cells connected with damaged bypass diode rises and even hot spot of some solar cells is observed. We confirm that damaged bypass diodes in module lead to power drop of module, temperature rise of module and temperature rise of bypass diode. Those results are used to find module with a damaged bypass diode in system.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.587-592
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• 2010

We have fabricated schottky barrier diode (SBDs) using polar (c-plane) and non polar (a-, m-plane) n-type 6H-SiC wafers. Ni/SiC ohmic contact was accomplished on the backside of the SiC wafers by thermal evaporation and annealed for 20minutes at $950^{\circ}C$ in mixture gas ($N_2$ 90% + $H_2$ balanced). The specific contact resistance was $3.6{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm^2$ after annealing at $950^{\circ}C$. The XRD results of the alloyed contact layer show that formation of $NiSi_2$ layer might be responsible for the ohmic contact. The active rectifying electrode was formed by the same thermal evaporation of Ni thin film on topside of the SiC wafers and annealed for 5 minutes at $500^{\circ}C$ in mixture gas ($N_2$ 90% + $H_2$ balanced). The electrical properties of SBDs have been characterized by means of I-V and C-V curves. The forward voltage drop is about 0.95 V, 0.8 V and 0.8 V for c-, a- and m-plane SiC SBDs respectively. The ideality factor (${\eta}$) of all SBDs have been calculated from log(I)-V plot. The values of ideality factor were 1.46, 1.46 and 1.61 for c-, a- and m-plane SiC SBDs, respectively. The schottky barrier height (SBH) of all SBDs have been calculated from C-V curve. The values of SBH were 1.37 eV, 1.09 eV and 1.02 eV for c-, a- and m-plane SiC SBDs, respectively.