Analyses of High Leakage Currents in Al+ Implanted 4H SiC pn Diodes Caused by Threading Screw Dislocations

Abstract

The authors fabricated pn diodes with Al+ implantation in p-type epitaxial layers, and investigated the influence of the implantation dose on reverse leakage currents. Only in the highest dose with the Al concentration of 2x1020cm-3, more than 90% of the devices showed high leakage currents above 10-4A at the maximum electric field of 3MV/cm. In such devices, almost all of the emissive spots corresponded to threading screw dislocations (TSDs) by the analysis of emission microscopy and X-ray topography. These TSDs were defined as killer defects with the estimated density of 500cm-2 in the case of the highest dose. The emissions were supposed to be due to microplasmas, since the spectra of the emissions were different from those of heat radiation. Condensation of Al atoms, nitrogen atoms and DI defects were excluded as the origin of the emissions by secondary ion mass spectrometry and low temperature photoluminescence analyses.