Suppression of the degradation in SiC power devices using high-energy ion implantation

Abstract

SiC power devices exhibit high energy-saving performance; however, they are expensive. One of the causes of the high cost is the degradation of device performance through bipolar degradation, which is a phenomenon in which basal plane dislocations in the crystal expand into stacking faults (SFs). As a countermeasure, this study has established a method (SF-KHII™ method) that introduces point defects into SiC through high-energy H⁺ or He⁺ implantation to prevent the expansion of SFs. It is expected that the SF-KHII™ method will completely suppress the expansion of SFs in the future, which will result in the widespread use of energy-saving SiC power devices.