Analysis of the current-voltage-temperature characteristics of Wl4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes for high performance temperature sensors

Abstract

The experimental current-voltage- temperature ($I_{D}-V_{D-}$ T)curves of a Wl4H-SiC Schottky barrier (SB) diode are explored by means of a careful simulation analysis. Simulations show a perfect agreement with experimental results for different forward current levels. The fundamental diode parameters, such as the ideality factor and barrier height are T-dependent. In more detail, the barrier height increases while the ideality factor decreases with an increasing temperature. These behaviors are interpreted assuming the thermionic emission (TE) conduction model with a single Gaussian distribution of the SB height. The calculated Richardson constant is 148.8Ac$m^{-2}K^{-2}$. In the low-medium current regime, the diode voltage drop has a good linear dependence on T. For a bias current of 5.97 nA, the coefficient of determination is in excess of 0.9996 and the diode sensitivity is close to 2.33 mV/K corresponding to a temperature error of 1.14 K.