Design of high breakdown voltage vertical GaN p-n diodes with high-K/low-K compound dielectric structure for power electronics applications

In this work, a vertical GaN p-n diode with a high-K/low-K compound dielectric structure (GaN CD-VGD) is proposed and designed to achieve a record high breakdown voltage (BV) with a low specific on-resistance (R-on,R-sp). By introducing compound dielectric structure, the electric field near the p-n junction interface is suppressed due to the effects of high-K passivation layer, and a new electric field peak is induced into the n-type drift region, because of a discontinuity of electrical field at the interface of high-K and low-K layer. Therefore the distribution of electric field in GaN p-n diode becomes more uniform and an enhancement of breakdown voltage can be achieved. Numerical simulations demonstrate that GaN CD-VGD with a BV of 10650 V and a R-on,R-sp of 14.3 m Omega cm(2), resulting in a record high figure-of-merit of 8 GW/cm(2). (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.