Optimisation of epitaxial layer growth by Schottky diodes electrical characterization

The influence of the epitaxial layer growth parameters on the electrical characteristics of Schottky diodes has been studied in detail. Several diodes were manufactured on different epitaxial layers grown with different Si/H 2 ratio and hence with different growth rates. From the electrical characterization a maximum silicon dilution ratio can be fixed at 0.04 %. This limit fixes also a maximum growth rate that can be obtained in the epitaxial growth, with this process, at about 8 OEºm/h. Several epitaxial layers have been grown, using this dilution ratio, with different temperatures (1550??1650¬?C). At 1600¬?C the best compromise between the direct and the reverse characteristics has been found. With this process the yield decreases from 90% for a Schottky diode area of 0.25 mm2 to 61% for the 2 mm diodes. Optimizing the deposition process to reduce the defects introduced by the epitaxial process, yield of the order of 80% can be reached on 1 mm2 diodes.