Active area designs for silicon carbide super-junction power devices

• US 9,735,237 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2015
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Ghandi, Reza, Losee, Peter Almern, Bolotnikov, Alexander Viktorovich
• Primary Examiner(s): CAMPBELL, SHAUN M
• Application Number:
  US14/752,446
• Publication Number:
  US 20160380059A1
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/0634 Multiple reduced surface field (multi-RESURF) structures, e.g. double RESURF, charge compensation, cool, superjunction (SJ), 3D-RESURF, composite buffer (CB) structures
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/1608 Silicon carbide
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/6606 the devices being controllable only by variation of the electric current supplied or the electric potential applied, to one or more of the electrodes carrying the current to be rectified, amplified, oscillated or switched, e.g. two-terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/8083 Vertical transistors SIT H01L29/7722
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/872 Schottky diodes

Abstract

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to silicon carbide (SiC) power devices and, more specifically, to active area designs for SiC super-junction (SJ) power devices. A SiC-SJ device includes an active area having one or more charge balance (CB) layers. Each CB layer includes a semiconductor layer having a first conductivity-type and a plurality of floating regions having a second conductivity-type disposed in a surface of the semiconductor layer. The plurality of floating regions and the semiconductor layer are both configured to substantially deplete to provide substantially equal amounts of charge from ionized dopants when a reverse bias is applied to the SiC-SJ device.

Claims

1. A silicon carbide (SiC) super-junction (SJ) device, comprising:

an active area including one or more charge balance (CB) layers, wherein each CB layer comprises;

a semiconductor layer having a first conductivity-type; and

a plurality of floating regions having a second conductivity-type disposed in a surface of the semiconductor layer, wherein the plurality of floating regions and the semiconductor layer are both configured to substantially deplete to provide substantially equal amounts of charge from ionized dopants when a reverse bias is applied to the SiC-SJ device, wherein a doping concentration of the plurality of floating regions is between 2×

10¹⁶ cm<sup>−

3</sup> and 1×

10¹⁸ cm<sup>−

3</sup>, and wherein a spacing between the plurality of floating regions of a particular CB layer of the one or more CB layers is greater than or equal to 10% of a thickness of the particular CB layer and is less than or equal to the thickness of the particular CB layer.

2. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein a thickness of the plurality of floating regions is greater than 1 μ

m.

3. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein a width of the plurality of floating regions is between 0.1 μ

m and 2 μ

m.

4. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein a spacing between the plurality of floating regions is between 1 μ

m and 6 μ

m.

5. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of floating regions has p-type doping and the semiconductor layer has n-type doping.

6. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein the doping concentration of the plurality of floating regions divided by a thickness of the floating regions is greater than or equal to 5×

10¹² cm<sup>−

3</sup>.

7. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein an effective sheet doping concentration of the plurality of floating regions is less than or equal to 1.1×

10¹³ cm<sup>−

2</sup>.

8. The SiC-SJ device of claim 6, wherein the doping concentration of the plurality of floating regions is between 5×

10¹⁶ cm<sup>−

3</sup> and 5×

10¹⁷ cm<sup>−

3</sup>.

9. The SiC-SJ device of claim 8, wherein the doping concentration of the plurality of floating regions is between 1.5×

10¹⁷ cm<sup>−

3</sup> and 1.9×

10¹⁷ cm<sup>−

3</sup>.

10. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor layer has a dopant concentration of the first conductivity-type that is greater than or equal to 5×

10¹⁵ cm<sup>−

3</sup>.

11. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein the one or more CB layers each have a thickness that is between 5 μ

m and 20 μ

m.

12. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein, for a particular CB layer of the one or more CB layers, the product of a thickness of the particular CB layer and a uniform dopant concentration of the first conductivity-type in the semiconductor layer of the particular CB layer is less than 1.1×

10¹³ cm<sup>−

2</sup>.

13. The SiC-SJ device of claim 1, wherein the SiC-SJ device has a breakdown voltage greater than 3 kV and a drift layer specific on-resistance at room temperature that is less than 7 mOhm·

cm<sup>−

2</sup>.

14. A method of manufacturing a silicon carbide (SiC) super-junction (SJ) device, comprising:

fabricating a first charge balance (CB) layer, comprising;

forming a first semiconductor layer having a first conductivity-type on top of a SiC substrate layer; and

implanting a first plurality of floating regions having a second conductivity-type into the first semiconductor layer, wherein a doping concentration of the first plurality of floating regions is between approximately 2×

10¹⁶ cm<sup>−

3</sup> and approximately 1×

10¹⁸ cm<sup>−

3</sup>, and wherein a spacing between the first plurality of floating regions is greater than or equal to 10% of a thickness of the first semiconductor layer and less than or equal to the thickness of the first semiconductor layer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein implanting the first plurality of floating regions comprises implanting using implantation energies less than approximately 1 MeV.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein a thickness of the first plurality of floating regions is less than or equal to approximately 1 μ

m.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the product of the thickness of the first semiconductor layer and a uniform dopant concentration of the first conductivity-type in the first semiconductor layer is less than 1.1×

10¹³ cm<sup>−

2</sup>.

18. The method of claim 14, comprising:

fabricating a second CB layer, comprising;

forming, on top of the first CB layer, a second semiconductor layer having the first conductivity-type; and

implanting a second plurality of floating regions having the second conductivity-type into the second semiconductor layer, wherein a doping concentration of the second plurality of floating regions is between approximately 2×

10¹⁶ cm<sup>−

3</sup> and approximately 1×

10¹⁸ cm<sup>−

3</sup>, and wherein a spacing between the second plurality of floating regions is greater than or equal to 10% of a thickness of the second semiconductor layer and less than or equal to the thickness of the second semiconductor layer.