Background
Aluminum nitride (AlN) is a promising ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductor for next-generation power electronics due to its remarkable material attributes, including the largest bandgap in the UWBG semiconductor family, high breakdown field, and superior thermal conductivity. In recent years, AlN Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) have already shown decent progress with 1 kV breakdown voltages (BVs) and high temperature stability. However, these devices showed a large ideality factor of 11.7, indicating the electron transport mechanism deviating from the well-known thermionic emission (TE) model.
Recent research in this area has shown that both forward and reverse current transports were dominated by defects in the AlN epilayers, and the key to improving AlN device performance is to reduce defects on the material.
Invention Description
Researchers at Arizona State University have developed novel multi-kilovolt Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) on bulk AlN substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor phase deposition (MOCVD) with excellent high-temperature performance. This device can operate at 3 kV without failing and shows a low leakage current of 200 nA at a reverse bias of -3 kV. The use of ultra-wide bandgap AlN significantly reduces the device dimension and power loss as compared to current silicon-based technology.
Potential Applications:
Benefits and Advantages: