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Enhanced electrical properties of 4H-SiC/Al2O3 heterojunction by PEALD in situ NH3-plasma passivation

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Abstract

The carbon clusters and oxygen vacancies-induced interface traps and near-interface-oxide traps (NIOTs) at the dielectric oxide/SiC heterojunction severely degenerate the electrical properties and reliability of SiC devices. In this work, plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) is performed to deposit Al2O3 dielectrics on 4H-SiC substrate to minimize the carbon cluster formation and in situ NH3-plasma pre-treatment is utilized to further improve the interfacial properties. Significantly enhanced electrical properties of the 4H-SiC/Al2O3 heterojunction is obtained with a reduced C–V hysteresis (from 0.411 V to 0.103 V) and leakage current density (from 10–3 to 10–6 A/cm2), lowered interface states (from (5.97–8.63) × 1011 to (4.10–7.56) × 1011 eV−1 cm−2) and NIOTs (from (6.15–6.82) × 1012 to (4.26–4.53) × 1011 eV−1 cm−2) and improved dielectric breakdown electric field (from 7.68 to 8.75 MV/cm). This demonstrates that in situ NH3-plasma pre-treatment associated with high-κ dielectrics is a promising technique for future high-power device applications.

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Funding

Funding was provided by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 12075307, Li Zheng, Shanghai Rising-Star Program, No. 21QA1410900, Li Zheng, Science and Technology Innovation Plan of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, Nos. 20501110900, 20501110800, Xinhong Cheng, Chinese Academy of Sciences Program, No. 172231KYSB20190004, Xinhong Cheng, Shanghai Sailing Program, No. 20YF1456700, Li Zheng.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Material Science & Chemistry, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, China

    Li Zheng & Jianhao Huang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Micro-System & Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, China

    Li Zheng, Feiqing Huang, Zhongyu Liu, Xinhong Cheng & Yuehui Yu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Li Zheng, Xinhong Cheng & Yuehui Yu

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  1. Li Zheng
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  2. Jianhao Huang
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  3. Feiqing Huang
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Correspondence to Li Zheng.

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Zheng, L., Huang, J., Huang, F. et al. Enhanced electrical properties of 4H-SiC/Al2O3 heterojunction by PEALD in situ NH3-plasma passivation. Appl. Phys. A 128, 941 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-022-06039-1

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