Effective use of large area SIC thyristors has been limited by the decreasing breakdown strength as the size of device increases. The proposed project aims to develop a cost-effective method to greatly improve the breakdown voltage of devices and minimize the dependence of their breakdown voltage on the device sizes. The essence of the effort is to implement a barrier layer between SiC substrate and the epitaxially-grown SIC films, blocking propagation of dislocations and micropipes from the substrate into p-n junction areas. The Phase I effort will focus on the proof-of-concept and demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. Phase II and Phase III will optimize, scale up and commercialize the technology.
Benefits: Thyristors play a critical role in variable-speed electric motors, power supplies for electrochemical processes, lightning and heating control, and controllers for electric utility power systems. SiC thyristors are particularly important for high power, high temperature, or high frequency applications.
Keywords: Silicon Carbide Breakdown Voltage Thyristor Micropipe Sol-Gel Dislocation Thin Film
