Schottky Barrier Characteristic Analysis on 4H-SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes With Heavy Ion-Induced Degradation

Leakage current of 1200-V 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with different structures increased by various degrees after heavy-ion exposure. By taking
${I}$
–
${V}$
measurements in a range of 298 to 448 K, the voltage dependence of saturation current (
$I_{0}$
), barrier height (
$\phi _{B0}$
), and ideality factor (
$n$
) were obtained. The dependence of these parameters with temperature illustrates the Gaussian distribution of barrier height. The inhomogeneity of the Schottky barrier height (SBH) distribution was successfully described using a modified thermionic emission (TE) model with Gaussian distribution, and the average barrier height (
$\bar {\phi }_{B0}$
) was gained. The results show that the barrier height distribution of all SBDs remain unchanged after the irradiation which means heavy-ion exposure did not affect the Schottky barrier.