Hard- and soft-breakdown modeling in &lt;001&gt; oriented <i>β</i>-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diode
Takaya Sugiura, Nobuhiko Nakano
Abstract
Gallium oxide (Ga2O3) attracts considerable technological interest because of its high Baliga’s figure-of-merit and high breakdown voltages. As the models for the breakdown behavior of n-doped Ga2O3 that consider soft (barrier lowering) and hard (avalanche effect) breakdowns are still lacking, in this study, we model the breakdown operations in &lt;001&gt; oriented Schottky barrier diodes considering both the soft- and hard-breakdown phenomena. The completion of the impact ionization model of β-Ga2O3 in &lt;001&gt; orientation is proposed by determining the hole impact ionization coefficient, thereby reproducing hard breakdown operations. Moreover, a barrier lowering model is determined for reproducing soft breakdown operations. The outcomes of the proposed modeling investigation are expected to be crucial for predicting the reverse-biased operations of β-Ga2O3 in &lt;001&gt; orientation to facilitate further technological development and applications of Ga2O3.