Contact Extensions over a High-k Dielectric Layer for Surface Field Mitigation in High Power 4H-SiC Photoconductive Switches

Animesh Roy Chowdhury, Daniel Mauch, Ravi P. Joshi, Andreas A. Neuber, James Dickens

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

We focus on a simulation study to probe the mitigation of electric fields, especially at the edges of metal contacts to SiC-based photoconductive switches. Field reduction becomes germane given that field-induced failures near contacts have been reported. A dual strategy of extending metal contacts to effectively spread the electric field over a larger distance and to employ HfO2 as a high-k dielectric, is discussed. Simulation results show that peak electric fields can be lowered by up to ∼67% relative to a standard design. Finally, our calculations predict that the internal temperature rise for a ∼ 7 -ns laser pulse and applied voltages around 20 kV (typical experimental values) would also be effectively controlled.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7505601
Pages (from-to)3171-3176
Number of pages6
JournalIEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
Volume63
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Keywords

  • Field mitigation
  • SiC material
  • high-k dielectrics
  • model analysis
  • photoconductive switch

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