Passivation in High-Power Si Devices - An Overview

Abstract

Passivation of semiconductor devices reaches back to the 1950s with passivation of silicon surfaces by thermally grown oxides. Over the years, the concept has changed towards a detailed balance of breakdown field and leakage current capabilities, involving also the underlying termination areas. In this contribution, a brief historical overview of passivation of Si devices will be given. Based on the underlying physics and lessons learned, an outlook to the challenges for power devices from wide band gap materials, such as silicon carbide, is provided.