Advances of beveled mesas for GaN-based trench Schottky barrier diodes

Abstract

In this article, we propose and investigate a GaN-based trench metal–insulator–semiconductor barrier Schottky rectifier with a beveled mesa and field plate (BM-TMBS). According to our study, the beveled mesa and field plate structures help to reduce the density of potential lines at the mesa corner and deplete the drift region in two-dimensional mode, respectively. By doing so, the electric field at the bottom corner of the trenches and Schottky contact/GaN interface can be decreased significantly and the breakdown voltage can also be improved remarkably when compared with the conventional TMBS rectifiers and the planar Schottky barrier diodes. Meanwhile, assisted by the beveled mesa structure, the improved current spreading effect and a better conductivity modulation can be obtained in the forward-conduction state. Our studies also show that the electric field profiles and charge-coupling effect can be influenced by the mesa angle, the insulating layer thickness (Tox), and the trench depth (Dtr). As a result, the optimized BM-TMBS rectifiers can obtain a high BV of ∼2 kV and a current density of ∼3 kA/cm2 at the forward bias of 2 V.