An official website of the United States government
Neutrons generated through charge-exchange9Be (p; ni)9Be reactions, with energies ranging from 0–33 MeV and an average energy of ∼9.8 MeV were used to irradiate conventional Schottky Ga2O3rectifiers and NiO/Ga2O3p-n heterojunction rectifiers to fluences of 1.1–2.2 × 1014cm−2. The breakdown voltage was improved after irradiation for the Schottky rectifiers but was highly degraded for their NiO/Ga2O3counterparts. This may be a result of extended defect zones within the NiO. After irradiation, the switching characteristics were degraded and irradiated samples of both types could not survive switching above 0.7 A or 400 V, whereas reference samples were robust to 1 A and 1 kV. The carrier removal rate in both types of devices was ∼45 cm−1. The forward currents and on-state resistances were only slightly degraded by neutron irradiation.
more »
« less
Forward bias annealing of proton radiation damage in NiO/Ga 2 O 3 rectifiers
Abstract 17 MeV proton irradiation at fluences from 3–7 × 1013cm−2of vertical geometry NiO/β-Ga2O3heterojunction rectifiers produced carrier removal rates in the range 120–150 cm−1in the drift region. The forward current density decreased by up to 2 orders of magnitude for the highest fluence, while the reverse leakage current increased by a factor of ∼20. Low-temperature annealing methods are of interest for mitigating radiation damage in such devices where thermal annealing is not feasible at the temperatures needed to remove defects. While thermal annealing has previously been shown to produce a limited recovery of the damage under these conditions, athermal annealing by minority carrier injection from NiO into the Ga2O3has not previously been attempted. Forward bias annealing produced an increase in forward current and a partial recovery of the proton-induced damage. Since the minority carrier diffusion length is 150–200 nm in proton irradiated Ga2O3, recombination-enhanced annealing of point defects cannot be the mechanism for this recovery, and we suggest that electron wind force annealing occurs.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2310285
- PAR ID:
- 10598911
- Publisher / Repository:
- Purpose-LED Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Physica Scripta
- Volume:
- 99
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 0031-8949
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 075312
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
We report the effect of extended duration electron beam exposure on the minority carrier transport properties of 10 MeV proton irradiated (fluence ∼1014cm−2) Si-dopedβ-Ga2O3Schottky rectifiers. The diffusion length (L) of minority carriers is found to decrease with temperature from 330 nm at 21 °C to 289 nm at 120 °C, with an activation energy of ∼26 meV. This energy corresponds to the presence of shallow Si trap-levels. Extended duration electron beam exposure enhancesLfrom 330 nm to 726 nm at room temperature. The rate of increase forLis lower with increased temperature, with an activation energy of 43 meV. Finally, a brief comparison of the effect of electron injection on proton irradiated, alpha-particle irradiated and a reference Si-dopedβ-Ga2O3Schottky rectifiers is presented.more » « less
-
We present a review of the published experimental and simulation radiation damage results in Ga 2 O 3 . All of the polytypes of Ga 2 O 3 are expected to show similar radiation resistance as GaN and SiC, considering their average bond strengths. However, this is not enough to explain the orders of magnitude difference of the relative resistance to radiation damage of these materials compared to GaAs and dynamic annealing of defects is much more effective in Ga 2 O 3 . It is important to examine the effect of all types of radiation, given that Ga 2 O 3 devices will potentially be deployed both in space and terrestrial applications. Octahedral gallium monovacancies are the main defects produced under most radiation conditions because of the larger cross-section for interaction compared to oxygen vacancies. Proton irradiation introduces two main paramagnetic defects in Ga 2 O 3 , which are stable at room temperature. Charge carrier removal can be explained by Fermi-level pinning far from the conduction band minimum due to gallium interstitials (Ga i ), vacancies (V Ga ), and antisites (Ga O ). One of the most important parameters to establish is the carrier removal rate for each type of radiation, since this directly impacts the current in devices such as transistors or rectifiers. When compared to the displacement damage predicted by the Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter(SRIM) code, the carrier removal rates are generally much lower and take into account the electrical nature of the defects created. With few experimental or simulation studies on single event effects (SEE) in Ga 2 O 3 , it is apparent that while other wide bandgap semiconductors like SiC and GaN are robust against displacement damage and total ionizing dose, they display significant vulnerability to single event effects at high Linear Energy Transfer (LET) and at much lower biases than expected. We have analyzed the transient response of β -Ga 2 O 3 rectifiers to heavy-ion strikes via TCAD simulations. Using field metal rings improves the breakdown voltage and biasing those rings can help control the breakdown voltage. Such biased rings help in the removal of the charge deposited by the ion strike.more » « less
-
The ion implantation of H+and D+into Ga2O3produces several O–H and O–D centers that have been investigated by vibrational spectroscopy. These defects include the dominant VGa(1)-2H and VGa(1)-2D centers studied previously along with additional defects that can be converted into this structure by thermal annealing. The polarization dependence of the spectra has also been analyzed to determine the directions of the transition moments of the defects and to provide information about defect structure. Our experimental results show that the implantation of H+(or D+) into Ga2O3produces two classes of defects with different polarization properties. Theory finds that these O–H (or O–D) centers are based on two shifted configurations of a Ga(1) vacancy that trap H (or D) atom(s). The interaction of VGa(1)-nD centers with other defects in the implanted samples has also been investigated to help explain the number of O–D lines seen and their reactions upon annealing. Hydrogenated divacancy VGa(1)-VOcenters have been considered as an example.more » « less
-
The switching performance of unpackaged vertical geometry NiO/ β -Ga 2 O 3 rectifiers with a reverse breakdown voltage of 1.76 kV (0.1 cm diameter, 7.85 × 10 −3 cm 2 area) and an absolute forward current of 1.9 A fabricated on 20 μ m thick epitaxial β -Ga 2 O 3 drift layers and a double layer of NiO to optimize breakdown and contact resistance was measured with an inductive load test circuit. The Baliga figure-of-merit of the devices was 261 MW.cm −2 , with differential on-state resistance of 11.86 mΩ.cm 2 . The recovery characteristics for these rectifiers switching from forward current of 1 A to reverse off-state voltage of −550 V showed a measurement-parasitic-limited recovery time (t rr ) of 101 ns, with a peak current value of 1.4 A for switching from 640 V. The reverse recovery time was limited by extrinsic parasitic and thus does not represent the intrinsic device characteristics. There was no significant dependence of t rr on switching voltage or forward current.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1402-4896/ad5514
