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SiC Applications outside Power Electronic Devices

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A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "D1: Semiconductor Devices".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 14518

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Francesco La Via

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

IMM-CNR sezione di Catania, Strada VIII 5 - Zona Industriale, I-95121 Catania, Italy
Interests: silicon carbide; growth; defects; MEMS; detectors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Alberto Roncaglia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

IMM sezione di Bologna, National Research Council of Italy, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
Interests: microfabrication; sensors; MEMS

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Newly emerging semiconductors, such as silicon carbide (SiC), are attractive for advanced power devices, due to their superior physical properties. Owing to the remarkable improvement in SiC wafer quality and the progress in device technology, high-voltage SiC Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) and field-effect transistors (FETs), which significantly outperform Si counterparts, have been demonstrated and, in recent years, the market of SiC power devices has increased considerably thanks to the application of electric vehicles.

In recent years, several interesting applications of this material in different fields (MEMS, optical devices, radiation detectors, biomedical devices, quantum devices, high temperature electronics, photovoltaic, water splitting) have been proposed thanks to the outstanding mechanical, optical, and radiation hardness, as well as biocompatibility properties of this material.

This Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers, short communications, and review articles that focus on these new applications outside the power electronics mainstream. The material and devices characterization, the design, the processing, and properties simulations for these new applications are all inside the scopes of this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Francesco La Via
Dr. Alberto Roncaglia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

silicon carbide
MEMS
optical devices
biomedical devices
radiation detectors
quantum devices
high-temperature electronics

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 1976 KiB

Open AccessArticle

High Performance Pd/4H-SiC Epitaxial Schottky Barrier Radiation Detectors for Harsh Environment Applications

by Krishna C. Mandal, Sandeep K. Chaudhuri and Ritwik Nag

Micromachines 2023, 14(8), 1532; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi14081532 - 30 Jul 2023

Viewed by 857

Abstract

Although many refractory metals have been investigated as the choice of contact metal in 4H-SiC devices, palladium (Pd) as a Schottky barrier contact for 4H-SiC radiation detectors for harsh environment applications has not been investigated adequately. Pd is a refractory metal with high material weight-to-thickness ratio and a work function as high as nickel, one of the conventional metal contacts for high performing 4H-SiC Schottky barrier detectors (SBDs). In this article, Pd/4H-SiC epitaxial SBDs have been demonstrated for the first time as a superior self-biased (0 V applied bias) radiation detector when compared to benchmark Ni/4H-SiC SBDs. The Pd/4H-SiC SBD radiation detectors showed a very high energy resolution of 1.9% and 0.49% under self- and optimized bias, respectively, for 5486 keV alpha particles. The SBDs demonstrated a built-in voltage (V_bi) of 2.03 V and a hole diffusion length (L_d) of 30.8 µm. Such high V_bi and L_d led to an excellent charge collection efficiency of 76% in the self-biased mode. Capacitance mode deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) results revealed that the “lifetime-killer” Z_1/2 trap centers were present in the 4H-SiC epilayer. Another deep level trap was located at 1.09 eV below the conduction band minimum and resembles the EH5 trap with a concentration of 1.98 × 10¹¹ cm⁻³ and capture cross-section 1.7 × 10⁻¹⁷ cm⁻²; however, the detector performance was found to be limited by charge trapping in the Z_1/2 center. The results presented in this article revealed the unexplored potential of a wide bandgap semiconductor, SiC, as high-efficiency self-biased radiation detectors. Such high performance self-biased radiation detectors are poised to address the longstanding problem of designing self-powered sensor devices for harsh environment applications e.g., advanced nuclear reactors and deep space missions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue SiC Applications outside Power Electronic Devices)

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11 pages, 3121 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Formation of Paramagnetic Defects in the Synthesis of Silicon Carbide

by Nain Mukesh, Bence G. Márkus, Nikoletta Jegenyes, Gábor Bortel, Sarah M. Bezerra, Ferenc Simon, David Beke and Adam Gali

Micromachines 2023, 14(8), 1517; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi14081517 - 28 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 964

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a very promising platform for quantum information processing, as it can host room temperature solid state defect quantum bits. These room temperature quantum bits are realized by paramagnetic silicon vacancy and divacancy defects in SiC that are typically introduced by irradiation techniques. However, irradiation techniques often introduce unwanted defects near the target quantum bit defects that can be detrimental for the operation of quantum bits. Here, we demonstrate that by adding aluminum precursor to the silicon and carbon sources, quantum bit defects are created in the synthesis of SiC without any post treatments. We optimized the synthesis parameters to maximize the paramagnetic defect concentrations—including already established defect quantum bits—monitored by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue SiC Applications outside Power Electronic Devices)

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11 pages, 3595 KiB

Open AccessArticle

SiC Measurements of Electron Energy by fs Laser Irradiation of Thin Foils

by Lorenzo Torrisi, Mariapompea Cutroneo and Alfio Torrisi

Micromachines 2023, 14(4), 811; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi14040811 - 02 Apr 2023

Viewed by 1226

Abstract

SiC detectors based on a Schottky junction represent useful devices to characterize fast laser-generated plasmas. High-intensity fs lasers have been used to irradiate thin foils and to characterize the produced accelerated electrons and ions in the target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) regime, detecting their emission in the forward direction and at different angles with respect to the normal to the target surface. The electrons’ energies have been measured using relativistic relationships applied to their velocity measured by SiC detectors in the time-of-flight (TOF) approach. In view of their high energy resolution, high energy gap, low leakage current, and high response velocity, SiC detectors reveal UV and X-rays, electrons, and ions emitted from the generated laser plasma. The electron and ion emissions can be characterized by energy through the measure of the particle velocities with a limitation at electron relativistic energies since they proceed at a velocity near that of the speed of light and overlap the plasma photon detection. The crucial discrimination between electrons and protons, which are the fastest ions emitted from the plasma, can be well resolved using SiC diodes. Such detectors enable the monitoring of the high ion acceleration obtained using high laser contrast and the absence of ion acceleration using low laser contrast, as presented and discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue SiC Applications outside Power Electronic Devices)

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10 pages, 1286 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Radiation Hardness Study of Silicon Carbide Sensors under High-Temperature Proton Beam Irradiations

by Elisabetta Medina, Enrico Sangregorio, Andreo Crnjac, Francesco Romano, Giuliana Milluzzo, Anna Vignati, Milko Jakšic, Lucia Calcagno and Massimo Camarda

Micromachines 2023, 14(1), 166; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi14010166 - 09 Jan 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2180

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC), thanks to its material properties similar to diamond and its industrial maturity close to silicon, represents an ideal candidate for several harsh-environment sensing applications, where sensors must withstand high particle irradiation and/or high operational temperatures. In this study, to explore the radiation tolerance of SiC sensors to multiple damaging processes, both at room and high temperature, we used the Ion Microprobe Chamber installed at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (Zagreb, Croatia), which made it possible to expose small areas within the same device to different ion beams, thus evaluating and comparing effects within a single device. The sensors tested, developed jointly by STLab and SenSiC, are PIN diodes with ultrathin free-standing membranes, realized by means of a recently developed doping-selective electrochemical etching. In this work, we report on the changes of the charge transport properties, specifically in terms of the charge collection efficiency (CCE), with respect to multiple localized proton irradiations, performed at both room temperature (RT) and 500 °C. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue SiC Applications outside Power Electronic Devices)

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11 pages, 2287 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of the Oxidation Process on Carrier Lifetime and on SF Defects of 4H SiC Thick Epilayer for Detection Applications

by Alessandro Meli, Annamaria Muoio, Riccardo Reitano, Enrico Sangregorio, Lucia Calcagno, Antonio Trotta, Miriam Parisi, Laura Meda and Francesco La Via

Micromachines 2022, 13(7), 1042; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi13071042 - 30 Jun 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1742

Abstract

The aim of this work was a deep spectroscopical characterization of a thick 4H SiC epitaxial layer and a comparison of results between samples before and after a thermal oxidation process carried out at 1400 °C for 48 h. Through Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies, the carrier lifetimes and the general status of the epilayer were evaluated. Time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) was used to estimate carrier lifetime over the entire 250 µm epilayer using different wavelengths to obtain information from different depths. Furthermore, an analysis of stacking fault defects was conducted through PL and Raman maps to evaluate how these defects could affect the carrier lifetime, in particular after the thermal oxidation process, in comparison with non-oxidated samples. This study shows that the oxidation process allows an improvement in the epitaxial layer performances in terms of carrier lifetime and diffusion length. These results were confirmed using deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements evidencing a decrease in the Z_1/2 centers, although the oxidation generated other types of defects, ON1 and ON2, which appeared to affect the carrier lifetime less than Z_1/2 centers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue SiC Applications outside Power Electronic Devices)

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Review

Jump to: Research

37 pages, 6260 KiB

Open AccessReview

Emerging SiC Applications beyond Power Electronic Devices

by Francesco La Via, Daniel Alquier, Filippo Giannazzo, Tsunenobu Kimoto, Philip Neudeck, Haiyan Ou, Alberto Roncaglia, Stephen E. Saddow and Salvatore Tudisco

Micromachines 2023, 14(6), 1200; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/mi14061200 - 06 Jun 2023

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5694

Abstract

In recent years, several new applications of SiC (both 4H and 3C polytypes) have been proposed in different papers. In this review, several of these emerging applications have been reported to show the development status, the main problems to be solved and the outlooks for these new devices. The use of SiC for high temperature applications in space, high temperature CMOS, high radiation hard detectors, new optical devices, high frequency MEMS, new devices with integrated 2D materials and biosensors have been extensively reviewed in this paper. The development of these new applications, at least for the 4H-SiC ones, has been favored by the strong improvement in SiC technology and in the material quality and price, due to the increasing market for power devices. However, at the same time, these new applications need the development of new processes and the improvement of material properties (high temperature packages, channel mobility and threshold voltage instability improvement, thick epitaxial layers, low defects, long carrier lifetime, low epitaxial doping). Instead, in the case of 3C-SiC applications, several new projects have developed material processes to obtain more performing MEMS, photonics and biomedical devices. Despite the good performance of these devices and the potential market, the further development of the material and of the specific processes and the lack of several SiC foundries for these applications are limiting further development in these fields. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue SiC Applications outside Power Electronic Devices)

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