Mechanism of Reverse Leakage Current in Schottky Diode Fabricated on Large Bandgap Semiconductors like Ga_2O_3 or Diamond

摘要

One possible mechanism of reverse leakage current in Schottky diodes fabricated on large bandgap semiconductors like Ga_2O_3 or diamond is Schottky emission (image force barrier lowering) at the metal-semiconductor interface. Historically, there were 2 theories regarding the image force barrier lowering effect. The author's new idea is that the older and almost forgotten Kromer's theory can frequently give a much better fit to experimental data for large bandgap semiconductors like Ga203 or diamond Schottky diodes. It is possible to define an effective dielectric constant K_(eff) in the reverse leakage current equation and quite frequently 1 ≥ K_(eff) ≥ 1/4 for some large bandgap semiconductors like Ga203 or diamond. With proper peripheral surface passivation, K_(eff) can be equal to 1.