Design space and origin of off-state leakage in GaN vertical power diodes

• Published in: 2015 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) pp. 35.1.1 - 35.1.4
• Main Authors: Zhang, Y., Wong, H.-Y, Sun, M., Joglekar, S., Yu, L., Braga, N. A., Mickevicius, R. V., Palacios, T.
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-12-2015
• Subjects: Devices; Diodes; Dislocation density; Electric fields; Electron devices; Fasteners; Gallium nitride; Gallium nitrides; Leakage; Leakage current; Leakage currents; Meetings; Silicon; Substrates
• ISSN: 2156-017X
• DOI: 10.1109/IEDM.2015.7409830

Variable-range-hopping through dislocations was identified as the main off-state leakage mechanism for GaN vertical diodes on different substrates. The behavior of leakage current for vertical devices as a function of dislocation density and electric field was derived by TCAD simulations, after careful calibration with experiments and literature data. Designed GaN vertical diodes demonstrate 2-4 orders of magnitude lower leakage current while supporting 3-5 times higher electric field, compared to GaN lateral, Si and SiC devices.