Cameron Hettler

Design and Evaluation of a Compact Silicon Carbide Photoconductive Semiconductor Switch

A high-power vertical photoconductive switch was fabricated from a high-purity semi-insulating 4H-SiC wafer. The device was fabricated from an as-grown wafer with resistivity >; 109 Ω · cm and had a dark resistance of greater than 6 × 109 Ω. The switch was operated at 15 kV/cm and achieved a peak photocurrent of 14 A into a 25-Ω load. Optimization of the excitation wavelength and switch geometry using an optical parametric oscillator was studied in order to decrease the laser requirements for optical triggering. This has led to a decrease in ON-state resistance of almost two orders of magnitude for similar excitation energy levels at visible wavelengths. This work forms the basis for developing very compact high-voltage photoconductive switches.

A compact 45 kV curve tracer with picoampere current measurement capability.

This paper discusses a compact high voltage curve tracer for high voltage semiconductor device characterization. The system sources up to 3 mA at up to 45 kV in dc conditions. It measures from 328 V to 60 kV with 15 V resolution and from 9.4 pA to 4 mA with 100 fA minimum resolution. Control software for the system is written in Microsoft Visual C# and features real-time measurement control and IV plotting, arc-protection and detection, an electrically isolated universal serial bus interface, and easy data exporting capabilities. The system has survived numerous catastrophic high voltage device-under-test arcing failures with no loss of measurement capability or system damage. Overall sweep times are typically under 2 min, and the curve tracer system was used to characterize the blocking performance of high voltage ceramic capacitors, high voltage silicon carbide photoconductive semiconductor switches, and high voltage coaxial cable.

Performance and optimization of a 50 kV silicon carbide photoconductive semiconductor switch for pulsed power applications

A 50 kV silicon carbide photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) is presented. The SiC PCSS device is fabricated from semi-insulating 4H-SiC in a newly-proposed rear-illuminated, radial switch structure. The improved structure reduces the peak electric field within the switch, extending the blocking voltage to over 50 kVdc. Electrostatic field simulations of the PCSS are presented along with experimental blocking curves. The PCSS demonstrated low on-state resistance, delivering over 27 MW of peak power into a 31 Ω load. Device modeling was performed to further optimize the switch for peak efficiency when illuminated with 355 nm light, a common laser wavelength. The switch structure was modified for peak operation at 355 nm and the experimental and theoretical results are compared.

Shallow Incorporation of Nitrogen in HPSI 4H-SiC through the Laser Enhanced Diffusion Process

This paper investigates n-type doping of point-defect compensated high purity semi-insulating (HPSI) 4H-SiC using a pulsed laser (10 ns FWHM @ 260 nm) for the introduction of nitrogen to shallow depths. A thermal model is presented using COMSOL Multiphysics featuring nonlinear temperature dependent material properties and a volumetric heat source term that takes into account the laser absorption depth for common ultraviolet irradiating wavelengths. The temperature distribution in the material and the amount of time that the surface and near-surface regions are at high temperature determines how many laser pulses are required to dope to the desired depth, and simulation results are presented and fit to measured data. The simulations and measured data show that for shallow doping a short wavelength ultraviolet laser should be used to localize the heat at the surface so the dopant can’t diffuse deep into the material. The laser enhanced diffusion process has been used to incorporate nitrogen into HPSI 4H-SiC with a measured surface concentration greater than 1020 cm-3 and a nonlinear thermal model was built.

Compact Silicon Carbide Switch For High Voltage Operation

Vanadium compensated, 6H silicon carbide (SiC) is investigated as a compact, high-power, linear-mode photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) material. SiC is an attractive material due to its high resistivity, high electrical breakdown strength, and long recombination times compared to other photoconductive materials. The PCSS is designed for fast-rise time, low-jitter (sub-nanosecond) operation in a matched 50 mu test bed. Ohmic contacts were applied by physical vapor deposition and initial test utilized an external Nd:YAG laser trigger source. Analysis of the optical properties of Va-compensated SiC and of switch conduction resistance are presented and performance of contact material is discussed.

Characterization of Annealed HPSI 4H-SiC for Photoconductive Semiconductor Switches

Annealing of high purity semi-insulating (HPSI) 4H-SiC is investigated as a method to improve bulk photoconductive semiconductor switches through recombination lifetime modification. Five samples of HPSI 4H-SiC were annealed at 1810 °C for lengths of time ranging from 3 to 300 minutes. The recombination lifetime of the unannealed and annealed samples was measured using a contactless microwave photoconductivity decay (MPCD) system. The MPCD system consists of a 35 GHz continuous microwave probe and a tripled Nd:YAG pulsed laser. The recombination lifetime was increased from 6 ns, as received, up to 185 ns by annealing for 300 minutes. To experimentally verify switch improvements, identical switches from unannealed and annealed material were fabricated and tested at low voltage. The unannealed device generated a 15 ns pulse with a 2 ns rise-time. The annealed device conducted for upwards of 300 ns with a comparable 2 ns rise-time. The increased recombination lifetime resulted in lower on-state resistance and increased energy transfer.

Carrier lifetime studies of semi-insulating silicon carbide for photoconductive switch applications

A contactless microwave photoconductivity decay (MPCD) method has been used to measure recombination lifetime and relative conductivity of semi-insulating (SI) silicon carbide (SiC) wafers. A pulsed laser, tunable from 210 nm to 2 μm, has been used to probe above and below band gap photoconductive responses of four SI SiC wafers. The carrier lifetimes were calculated by comparing the reflected microwave signal to the photo response of a fast (< 300 ps) photodiode. Three vanadium-doped 6H-SiC wafers, with bulk resistivities ranging from 105 Ω-cm to 1011 Ω-cm, and one high-purity semi-insulating (HPSI) 4H-SiC wafer (> 109 Ω-cm) were studied. The photoconductive response of each wafer set is presented. The HPSI wafer demonstrated longer carrier lifetime and improved above band gap photoconductivity compared to the vanadium-doped wafers. The difference in carrier lifetimes are attributed to higher densities of recombination centers (vanadium acceptors) in the 6H-SiC substrates.

High voltage photoconductive switches using semi-insulating, vanadium doped 6H-SiC

SiC manufacturers are continually improving the purity of their wafers, however, interband impurities, while detrimental in many applications, can be useful in the operation of photoconductive switches. Compact, high-voltage photoconductive switches were fabricated using c-plane; vanadium doped 6H-SiC obtained from II-VI, Inc. This material incorporates a large amount of interband impurities that are compensated by the vanadium amphoteric, but at present is only available as c-plane wafers. In order to avoid micropipe defects, lateral switches were fabricated to allow validation of material simulations. Low resistivity contacts were formed on the semi-insulating material and a high-voltage encapsulant increases the surface flashover potential of the switch. Material characteristics were determined and switch parameters were simulated with comparisons made to experimental data.

Investigations Into 25- and 30-

Parallel-plate capacitors constructed with 25-and 30-μm-thick alkali-free glass sheets are demonstrated in pulsed RC discharge circuit. Capacitance values ranged from ~25 to 54 nF. Capacitors were charged and discharged with an electrically triggered switch into resistive loads and were tested at 23 °C in oil up to 3.2 kV and up to 235 °C in air with a charge voltage of 350 V. Peak currents greater than 160 A were measured for multiple capacitor charge and discharge cycles for the capacitor submerged in oil. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an ultrathin glass capacitor with multikilovolt charge voltage implement in a pulsed power electrical circuit. In addition, the dielectric strength of 25-μm-thick alkali-free Schott Inc. AF 32 ECO glass is investigated in Shell Diala oil at room temperature as a function of electrode area spanning a factor of 600. The results show that as electrode area increases dielectric strength significantly decreases. Implications for the decrease in dielectric strength at large dielectric areas are discussed in regard to manufacturing ultrathin glass capacitors. Dielectric strengths measured for AF 32 ECO glass are in agreement with similar compositions of alkali-free glass.

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Forming non-rectifying (ohmic) contacts to wide band gap semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC) requires a heavily doped subsurface layer to reduce the Schottky barrier height and allow efficient electron injection. Nitrogen, a common n-type dopant in SiC, was incorporated into a SiC sample using a laser enhanced diffusion process in which an impurity is incorporated into the semiconductor to very high surface concentrations (> 1020 cm-3) and very shallow depths (<; 200 nm) with the use of a pulsed 266 nm laser. This paper evaluates the effects of nitrogen introduced through laser enhanced diffusion on the contact formation and the efficiency of silicon carbide photoconductive switches at low and high injection levels under different biasing conditions. Nine lateral switches were fabricated on a high-purity semi-insulating 4H-SiC sample; three with no sub-contact doping, three with sub-contact doping on only one contact, and three with sub-contact doping on both contacts. Results are presented for tests under pulsed laser illumination with sub-contact doping on only the anode, only the cathode, neither, and on both of the contacts.