Hydrogen "doped" thin film diamond field effect transistors for high power applications

Journal article

Early predictions that diamond would be a suitable material for high performance, high power devices were not supported by the characteristics of diodes and field effect transistors (FETs) fabricated on boron doped (p-type) thin film material. In this paper commercially accessible polycrystalline thin film diamond has been turned p-type by the incorporation of near surface hydrogen; mobility values as high as 70 cm2 V-1 s-1 have been measured for films with a carrier concentration of 5 x 1017 cm-3. Schottky diodes and metal-semiconductor FETs (MESFETs) have been fabricated using this approach which display unprecedented performance levels; diodes with a rectification ratio > 106, leakage currents < 1 nA, no indication of reverse bias breakdown at 100 V and an ideality factor of 1.1 have been made. Simple MESFET structures that are capable of switching FDS values of 100 V with low leakage and current saturation (pinch-off) characteristics have also been fabricated. Predictions based upon experiments performed on these devices suggest that optimised device structures will be capable of operation at power levels up to 20 W mm-1, implying that thin film diamond may after all be an interesting material for power applications. © 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Authors: Looi, H; Pang, L; Foord, J; Jackman, R

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: SOLID-STATE ELECTRONICS
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 12
• Pages: 2215-2223
• Publication date: 1998-12-01
• DOI: 10.1016/S0038-1101(98)00218-4
• ISSN: 0038-1101
• Language: English