Experimental and numerical analyses of high voltage 4H-SiC junction barrier Schottky rectifiers with linearly graded field limiting ring

This paper describes the successful fabrication of 4H-SiC junction barrier Schottky (JBS) rectifiers with a linearly graded field limiting ring (LG-FLR). Linearly variable ring spacings for the FLR termination are applied to improve the blocking voltage by reducing the peak surface electric field at the edge termination region, which acts like a variable lateral doping profile resulting in a gradual field distribution. The experimental results demonstrate a breakdown voltage of 5 kV at the reverse leakage current density of 2 mA/cm2 (about 80% of the theoretical value). Detailed numerical simulations show that the proposed termination structure provides a uniform electric field profile compared to the conventional FLR termination, which is responsible for 45% improvement in the reverse blocking voltage despite a 3.7% longer total termination length.