Large Area, Ultra-high Voltage 4H-SiC PiN Rectifiers

Published

December 1, 2002

Author(s)

Ranbir Singh, Kenneth G. Irvine, D C. Capell, James Richmond, David W. Berning, Allen R. Hefner Jr., John W. Palmour

Abstract

This paper reports the design, fabrication, and high temperature characteristics of 1 mm², 4 mm², and 9 mm² 4H-SiC rectifiers with 6 kV, 5 kV, and 10 kV blocking voltage respectively. These results were obtained from two lots in an effort to increase the total power levels on such rectifiers. An innovative design utilizing a highly doped p-type epitaxial Anode layer and junction termination extension (JTE) were used in order to realize good on-state as well as stable blocking characteristics. For the 1 mm² and 4 mm² rectifier, a forward voltage drop of less than 5 V was observed at 500 A/cm² in the 25 ⁰C to 225 ⁰C temperature range, and the peak reverse recovery current shows a modest 50% increase. On the 10 kV, 9 mm² rectifier, a forward voltage drop of less than 4.8 V was observed at 100 A/cm² in the entire 25 ⁰C to 200 ⁰C temperature range. For this device, the reverse recovery characteristics show a modest 110% increase in the peak reverse recovery current from 25 ⁰C to 200 ⁰C. A dramatically low Q_rr of 3.8 uC was obtained at a forward current density of 220 A/cm² at 200 ⁰C for this ultra high voltage rectifier. These devices show that more than four orders of magnitude reduction in reverse recovery charge is obtained in 4H-SiC rectifiers as compared to comparably rated Si rectifiers.

Citation

IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices

Volume

49

Issue

12

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

PiN, rectifier, SiC

Citation

Singh, R. , Irvine, K. , Capell, D. , Richmond, J. , Berning, D. , Hefner Jr., A. and Palmour, J. (2002), Large Area, Ultra-high Voltage 4H-SiC PiN Rectifiers, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=31300 (Accessed June 2, 2023)