Comprehensive Study and Optimization of Implementing p-NiO in β-Ga2O3 Based Diodes via TCAD Simulation
Hong Zhou, Shifan Zeng, Jincheng Zhang, Jincheng Zhang, Zhihong Liu, Qian Feng, Shengrui Xu, Jinfeng Zhang, Jinfeng Zhang, Yue Hao
Abstract
In this paper, we carried out a comprehensive study and optimization of implementing p-NiO in the β-Ga2O3 based diodes, including Schottky barrier diode (SBD) with p-NiO guard ring (GR), p-NiO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction (HJ) barrier Schottky (HJBS) diode, and HJ-PN diode through the TCAD simulation. In particular, we provide design guidelines for future p-NiO-related Ga2O3 diodes with material doping concentrations and dimensions to be taken into account. Although HJ-PN has a ~1 V higher turn-on voltage (Von), its breakdown voltage (BV) is the highest among all diodes. We found that for SBD with p-NiO GRs and HJBS, their forward electrical characteristics and reverse leakage current are related to the total width and the doping concentration of p-NiO, the BV is only related to the doping concentration of p-NiO, and the optimal doping concentration of p-NiO is found to be 4 × 1017 cm−3. Compared with the SBD without p-NiO, the BV of the SBD with p-NiO and HJBS diode can be essentially improved by 3 times. As a result, HJ-PN diode, SBD with p-NiO GRs, and HJ-BS diode achieve a BV/specific on-resistance (Ron,sp) of 5705 V/4.3 mΩ·cm2, 3006 V/3.07 mΩ·cm2, and 3004 V/3.06 mΩ·cm2, respectively. Based on different application requirements, this work provides a useful insight about the diode selection with various structures.