High Temperature Rectifiers and MOS Devices in 6H-Silicon Carbide

摘要

A major emphasis in the aerospace industry has been to increase the performanceand efficiency of aircraft engines (including helicopters). Most of the improvements require the engine to run hotter, be more compact and more precisely controlled. All of these requirements increase the temperature of an increasing number of electronic components on the engine. This contract involved the development of two types of solid state devices for use in various engine applications using silicon carbide which is the premiere semiconductor material for high temperature (and other) applications. One device is a high voltage, low current rectifier which can operate to at least 350 deg C for use in an igniter circuit. The developments required involved decreasing the doping level of the background layer in epitaxial growth, improving the passivation and packaging to withstand the high voltage and high temperature. The other is a 350 deg C small signal MOSFET which can be used as an amplifier for a variety of sensors. For this portion of the research, the major focus was on characterization of the thermal oxide and the oxide interface through fabrication and characterization of MOS capacitors and various MOSFET designs.