Papers by Author: Ho Keun Song

Abstract: Schottky barrier diode (SBD) was fabricated by MOCVD using bistrimethylsilylmethane (BTMSM, C7H20Si2) precursor. The 4H-SiC substrates which had different crystallographic characteristics were used for the comparison of the crystallinity effect on the electrical properties of the SBDs. From the measurement of the reverse I-V characteristics of the SBDs with micropipes, it is shown that the origin of the main leakage path and early breakdown (or ohmic behavior in reverse bias) in 4H-SiC SBDs is the grain boundaries caused by the inclusions or other defects. The best performance of SBD were shown in the epilayer grown at 1440 oC using high quality substrate, and the breakdown voltage and reverse leakage current were about 450 V and 10-9 A/cm2, respectively.

Abstract: We have investigated the electrical and physical properties of high-temperature (1300, 1400 oC) grown dry oxide with or without post oxidation annealing (POA) in nitric oxide (NO) gas. A significant reduction in interface-trap density (Dit) has been observed in 1300 oC-grown dry oxide with or without NO POA if compared with the Dit of 1400 oC-grown dry oxide. The reason for this has been explained in this paper.

Abstract: Planar MESFETs were fabricated on high-purity semi-insulating (HPSI) 4H-SiC substrates. The saturation drain current of the fabricated MESFETs with a gate length of 0.5 μm and a gate width of 100 μm was 430 mA/mm, and the transconductance was 25 mS/mm. The maximum oscillation frequency and cut-off frequency were 26.4 GHz and 7.2 GHz, respectively. The power gain was 8.4 dB and the maximum output power density was 2.8 W/mm for operation of class A at CW 2 GHz. MESFETs on HPSI substrates showed no current instability and much higher output power density in comparison to MESFETs on vanadium-doped SI substrates.

Abstract: We have fabricated advanced metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with ultra thin (5 nm) remote-PECVD SixNy dielectric layers and investigated electrical properties of nitrided SiO2/4H-SiC interface after oxidizing the SixNy in dry oxygen at 1150 °C for 30, 60, 90 min. Improvements of electrical properties have been revealed in capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current density-electrical field (J-E) measurements in comparison with dry oxide. The improvements of SiC MOS capacitors formed by oxidizing the pre-deposited SixNy have been explained in this paper.

Abstract: We have investigated the electrical properties of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with atomic-layer-deposited La2O3, thermal-nitrided SiO2, and atomic-layer-deposited La2O3/thermal-nitrided SiO2 on n-type 4H-SiC. A significant reduction in leakage current density has been observed in La2O3 structure when a 6-nm thick thermal nitrided SiO2 has been sandwiched between the La2O3 and SiC. However, this reduction is still considered high if compared to sample having thermal-nitrided SiO2 alone. The reasons for this have been explained in this paper.

Abstract: The authors attempted to grow a semi-insulating SiC epitaxial layer by in-situ vanadium doping. The homoepitaxial growth of the vanadium-doped 4H-SiC layer was performed by MOCVD using the organo-silicon precursor, bis-trimethylsilylmethane (BTMSM, [C7H20Si2]) and the metal-organic precursor, bis-cyclopentadienylvanadium (Verrocene, [C10H10V]). Vanadium doping effect on crystallinity of epilayer was very destructive. Vanadium-doped epilayers grown on normal condition had various surface or crystal defects such as micropipes, polytype inclusions. But this crystallinity degradation was overcome by high growth temperature. For the measurement of the resistivity of the highly resistive vanadium-doped 4H-SiC epilayers, the authors used the on-resistance technique. Based on the measurements of the on-resistance of the epilayers using the current-voltage technique, it is shown that the residual donor concentration of the epilayers was decreased with increasing partial pressure of verrocene. The resistivity of the vanadium-doped 4H-SiC epilayer was about 107 /cm.

Abstract: 4H-SiC planar MESFETs were fabricated using ion-implantation on high-purity semi-insulating substrate, and their DC and RF performances were characterized. A modified RCA method was used to clean the substrate before each procedure. Sacrificial oxide was grown after channel layer etching to eliminate plasma damage to the gate region. A thin, thermal oxide layer was grown to passivate the surface and then a thick field oxide was deposited by CVD. The maximum oscillation frequency of 26.4 GHz and the cut-off frequency of 7.2 GHz were obtained. The power gain was 8.4 dB and the output power was 2.8 W/mm at 2 GHz.

Abstract: Ti/4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes were fabricated under 500, 750, 1000 °C thermal treatment conditions. After the heat treatment at 750 °C, formation of TiC(111) and Ti5Si3(210) phases was confirmed by XRD analysis. Formation of Ti carbide and silicide phase increased breakdown voltage VB from 545 V to 830 V. An improvement of breakdown voltage (VB) was observed in case of the thermal treatment in nitrogen ambient at 750 °C for 2 min. Ideality factor (n), specific on resistance (Ron), and Schottky barrier height (Φb) were 1.04, 2.7 m-cm2, 1.33 eV respectively.

Abstract: The La2O3 and Al2O3/La2O3 layers were grown on 4H-SiC by atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. The electrical properties of La2O3 on 4H-SiC were examined using metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structures of Pt/La2O3(18nm)/4H-SiC and Pt/Al2O3(10nm)/La2O3(5nm)/4H-SiC. For the Pt/La2O3(18nm)/4H-SiC structure, even though the leakage current density was slightly reduced after the rapid thermal annealing at 500 oC, accumulation capacitance was gradually increased with increasing bias voltage due to a high leakage current. On the other hand, since the leakage current in the accumulation regime was decreased for the Pt/Al2O3/La2O3/4H-SiC MIS structure owing to the capped Al2O3 layer, the capacitance was saturated. But the saturation capacitance was strongly dependent on frequency, indicating a leaky interfacial layer formed between the La2O3 and SiC during the fabrication process of Pt/Al2O3(10nm)/ La2O3(5nm)/ 4H-SiC structure.

Abstract: In this paper, we attempted to grow semi-insulating SiC epitaxial layer by in-situ iron doping. Homoepitaxial growth of iron-doped 4H-SiC layer was performed by MOCVD using organo-silicon precursor, bis-trimethylsilylmethane (BTMSM, [C7H20Si2]) and metal organic precursor, t-butylferrocene ([C14H17Fe]). Doping-induced crystallinity degradation showed different tendency depending on conducting type of substrate. The crystal quality of epilayer grown on n-type substrate was not degraded significantly despite of the Fe doping but in case of semi-insulating substrate, crystallinity was remarkably degraded as increasing iron contents. For measurement of resistivity of highly resistive iron-doped 4H-SiC epilayer, we used the on-resistance technique which is firstly attempted for measuring resistivity of epilayer. From on-resistance of epilayer measured by I-V, it is shown that the residual donor concentration of epilayer was decreased as increasing partial pressure of t-butylferrocene. The resistivity of iron-doped 4H-SiC epilayer was about 107 Ωcm. From this result, it is concluded that Fe could effectively act as a compensation center in the iron-doped 4H-SiC.