Development of an Extreme High Temperature n-Type Ohmic Contact to Silicon Carbide

Abstract

We report on the initial demonstration of a tungsten-nickel (75:25 at. %) ohmic contact to silicon carbide (SiC) that performed for up to fifteen hours of heat treatment in argon at 1000 °C. The transfer length method (TLM) test structure was used to evaluate the contacts. Samples showed consistent ohmic behavior with specific contact resistance values averaging 5 x 10-4 Ω-cm2. The development of this contact metallization should allow silicon carbide devices to operate more reliably at the present maximum operating temperature of 600 °C while potentially extending operations to 1000 °C.