Comparison of the Threshold-Voltage Stability of SiC MOSFETs with Thermally Grown and Deposited Gate Oxides

Abstract

The electrical characteristics and the reliability of different oxides on the 4H-SiC Si-face for gate oxide application in MOS devices are compared under MOSFET operation conditions at room temperature, at 100°C and at 130°C. The oxides are either an 80nm thick deposited oxide annealed in NO or an 80nm thick grown oxide in diluted N2O. The deposited oxide shows significant higher QBD- and lower Dit-values as well as a stronger decrease of drain current under stress than the grown oxide. Although for the deposited oxide, the leakage current below subthreshold increases more than one order of magnitude during constant circuit stress at room temperature, for the thermal oxide it is quite constant, but at higher level for higher temperatures.