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

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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 October 17, 2025)