University of Mosul

College of Electrical Engineering

A Power MOSFET With P-Base Schottky Diode

and Built-In Channel Diode for Fast
Reverse Recovery

By: Amina Ghassan

Supervised by: Dr. Mohammed T. Yaseen

December 2022
 ABSTRACT
• A power MOSFET with P-base Schottky diode and built-in channel diode is proposed and numerically
investigated in this article.
• The P-base Schottky diode formed by the P-base Schottky contact is in reverse series with the P-base/N-drift
junction diode.
by coupling the gate of the dummy MOSFET to the source, a built-in channel diode is introduced which provides

1. a unipolar reverse conduction current path

2. drastically reduces the gate-to-drain charge.
When the proposed MOSFET serves as the freewheeling diode, the reverse-biased P-base Schottky
diode inactivates the P-base/N-drift junction diode,so that the reverse current will be carried out by the built-in
channel diode
in comparison

with the planar gate power MOSFET :

the reverse recovery charge and the gate-to-drain charge could be reduced
by 96.9 % and 75.4%, respectively.
Introduction
• The power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transisors(MOSFETs) are widely adopted in high-frequency power switching

applications due to their fast switching capability when compared with the bipolar devices.

• The problem

1. In the inverter and boost converter applications, the parasitic body PiN diode enables the power MOSFETs to conduct current in
provides
the reverse direction, which a cost-effective solution for the freewheeling diode.

2. However, due to a large number suffers

of the fr
minority carriers in the drift region during the reverse conduction period, the body PiN
suffers from
diode of the power MOSFETs om a high reverse recovery current and a high reverse recovery charge.

3. In most power switching applications, the reverse recovery current of one power MOSFET would be forced into another power
As a result
MOSFET., the power loss and the current stress of the switching applications are significantly increased
Solution to the problem
• Before testing any solution it shoud be clear that there is a limitation
that should not be exceeded and here it is:
• On-state voltage drop
• Injection of the minority carrier (simple gate control circuit)
• Reverse recovery current and reverse recovery charge.
The proposed method (Solution)
In this work,
a new power MOSFET architecture is proposed by integrating a built-in channel diode and a P-base Schottky diode.

• The built-in channel diode is formed by utilizing a dummy MOS gate electrically coupled to the source electrode,
which is also of great benefit to reduce the gate-to-drain charge (relies on turn-on voltage).

• The P-base Schottky diode formed by the P-base Schottky contact is in reverse series with the body PiN diode (P-
base/N-drift/N+ -sub diode). In this way, the PiN diode is inactivated by the reverse-biased P-type Schottky diode, so
the injection of the minority carriers is suppressed and the reverse current would be conducted by the unipolar
built-in channel diode during the reverse conduction state.

As a result, superior reverse recovery performances are obtained and the figures of merit of the power MOSFET are
also improved.
 DEVICE STRUCTURE AND
CHARACTERISTICS

FIGURE 1. Schematic section views of: (a) planar gate power MOSFET and (b) proposed MOSFET. Schottky barrier
height to P-base (qBp) is set to be 0.5 eV and (c) the equivalent circuit of the proposed MOSFET.
 Implementation of the proposed MOSFET
The proposed MOSFET could be implemented in a similar way as the
planar gate power MOSFET, with a slight revision to the gate formation
process and the heat treatments of the front-side metal contact .
• To control the hole carrier density (injection of the minority carriers )
the Schottky barrier height to P-base (q Bp) could be adjusted by
varying the heat treatment temperature, and it is set to 0.5 eV in this
work if no specific state..
• To achieve a lower turn-on voltage of the built-in channel diode
(Source: N-drift, Gate: S, Drain: S, Body: P-base), thiner gate oxide
thickness (TCO) of the dummy MOS is used.
Device Simulation

• Device simulations and mixed-mode simulations using :

Sentaurus TCAD are performed.

 Simulation Resaults

Fig. 2 plots the reverse conduction current flowlines of

the proposed MOSFET and PG-MOS at VGS = 0 V and
ISD = 100 A/cm2. TCO is set to 30 nm in the proposed
MOSFET. For PG-MOS, the reverse conduction voltage VF
is 0.76 V and the reverse current is fully conducted by the
body PiN diode.
While in the proposed MOSFET, VF is 1.75 V and the
reverse current is fully conducted by the built-in channel
diode. This implies that the PiN diode is completely
inactivated in the proposed MOSFET.

FIGURE 2. Reverse conduction current flowlines of

PG-MOS and proposed MOSFET at ISD= 100 A/cm2.
 Fig. 3 shows the dependences of q Bp on the
hole carrier distributions along line AA’ shown
in Fig. 1(a) (ISD=100 A/cm2, VGS = 0 V, TCO =
30 nm). It

At 0.5 and higher very effective minority

suppressing. The minority carrier is far
below the dopping concentration of N-drift
region

FIGURE 3. Dependences of q Bp on the hole carrier distributions along line AA’

shown in Fig. 1(a). I SD=100 A/cm2, VGS= 0 V, TCO= 30 nm.
 • The peak reverse recovery current IRRM and the reverse
recovery charge QRR of PG-MOS are 112 A/cm2 and 6.82 μ
C/cm2 , respectively. In the proposed MOSFET, when q Bp
= 0 eV, which is just the case of the power MOSFET with
only the built-in channel diode IRRM is 63 A/cm2and QRR
is 3.24 μ C/cm2. And when q Bp is equal to or higher than
0.5 eV, the reverse recovery characteristics of the proposed
MOSFET are very close, IRRM is 24 A/cm2 and QRR is 0.21
μ C/cm 2 .
• As a result, compared with PG-MOS and the MOSFET with
only the built-in channel diode, IRRM of the proposed
MOSFET could be reduced by 78.6% and 61.9%, QRR could
be reduced by 96.9% and 93.5%, respectively.

FIGURE 4. (a) Testing circuit configuration for reverse recovery characteristics. (b) The reverse recovery
characteristics of PGMOS and the proposed one. PG-MOS is used as M0, and the DUT is the extension of
the device under test.
 Fig. 5 shows the reverse conduction characteristics of the
two studied MOSFETs. For PG-MOS, the body PiN diode
turns on at about 0.7 V, the reverse conduction voltage VF
(VSD = -VDS) at 100 A/cm2 is 0.76 V.
However, even if TCO is equal to 50 nm, the proposed
MOSFET still exhibits nearly unipolar reverse conduction
characteristics, which is highly suitable for high-frequency
applications.
Besides, VF of the proposed MOSFET strongly relies on the
turn-on voltage of the built-in channel diode.
A smaller TCO causes a smaller turn-on voltage of the built-
in channel diode and hence a smaller VF (VSD = -VDS) of
the proposed MOSFET. And when TCO = 10 nm, VF of the
proposed MOSFET at 100 A/cm2 is 1.21 V.(better)

FIGURE 5. Reverse conduction characteristics of the two studied

MOSFETs (VGS= 0 V,q Bp =0.5 eV).
 The hole carrier density in the drift region will increase as TCO
increases.. This is because a
• higher TCO.
• a higher turn-on voltage of the built-in channel diode.
• increasing the reverse bias voltage (VF=VSD) and the
leakage current of the P-base Schottky diode.
• The leakage current of the P-base Schottky diode will flow
through the body PiN diode.
However, the hole density is still far below the doping
concentration of the N-drift region (9 × 10 14 cm−3) even if TCO
is increased to 50 nm

FIGURE 6. Dependences of TCO on the hole carrier distributions

along line AA’ shown in Fig. 1(a). ISD=100 A/cm2, VGS= 0 V, q Bp = 0.5
eV.
 It is clear that TCO does not affect the reverse recovery
characteristics of the proposed MOSFET. This is because,
in the proposed MOSFET, the PiN diode is inactivated by
the P-type Schottky diode, the reduction of TCO has little
effect on minority carriers injection, as revealed in Fig. 6.

FIGURE 7. Reverse recovery characteristics of the two studied MOSFETs with

various TCO.
 In the proposed MOSFET, a smaller q Bp allows more minority
carriers to be injected into the drift region. This contributes to a
smaller VF, but a larger QRR.

As a consequence, a new method to adjust the trade-off

relationships between QRR and VF is provided in the proposed
MOSFET.

However, when q Bp is higher than 0.5 eV, q Bp will almost no

longer affect QRR and VF, owing to the fact that the body PiN
diode would be inactivated as long as q Bp is higher than 0.5
eV.
Benefiting from the inactivated PiN diode (at 0.5 Ev), the trade-
off relationships between VF and QRR could be dramatically
improved by reducing TCO.
when TCO increases to 30 nm, the improvement factor of QRR
× VF increases
FIGURE 8. Effects of q Bp and TCO on QRR and VF . QRR
is extracted under the same condition as in Fig. 4(a).
 • Evidently, unlike the other integrated Schottky diode
methods, the integration of the P-base Schottky diode
would not compromise the leakage current.
• This is because the leakage current before the proposed
MOSFET breakdown is far from enough to activate the NPN
(N+/P-base/N-drift) transistor.
• However, due to the introduction of the P-base Schottky
diode, when an extremely strong avalanche break-down
occurs, the NPN transistor of the proposed MOSFET would
be more likely to be triggered when compared with the PG-
MOS.
• Nevertheless, the avalanche current required to activate the
NPN transistor in the proposed MOSFET exceeds 1000
A/cm2 even if q Bp = 0.7 eV.

FIGURE 9. Blocking I-V characteristics of PG-MOS and the

proposed MOSFET.
 Fig. 10(b) compares the unclamped inductive
switching waveforms for the studied MOSFETs, where
the test circuit configuration is shown in Fig. 10(a).
• Clearly, the unclamped inductive switching
performances of the proposed MOSFET are similar
to that of PG-MOS.
• Besides, it is confirmed from Fig. 10(b) that the
NPN transistor of the proposed MOSFET is not
activated even if the dynamic avalanche current
reaches 600 A/cm2, which ensuring enough safe
operating area of the proposed one.

FIGURE 10. (a) Test circuit configuration for unclamped inductive switching
characteristics, where each device has an area of 0.1 cm2 And a thermal resistance of 20
C/cm 2 ·kW is used. (b) The unclamped inductive switching waveforms for the studied
MOSFETs.
 the specific on-resistance RON of the
proposed MOSFET (8.6 m · cm2 at IDS = 100
A/cm2 And VGS = 10 V is marginally higher
than that of PG-MOS (8.2 m · cm2). And RON-
BV trade-off of the proposed device would
only worsen a little bit when compared with
PG-MOS.

FIGURE 11. Forward I-V characteristics of PG-MOS and the

proposed MOSFET (VGS= 10 V).
 The gate charge QG and the gate-to-drain charge
QGD of PG-MOS are 311 nC/cm2 and 114 nC/cm2,
respectively.
In the proposed MOSFET,owing to the introduction of
the built-in channel diode, much smaller QG (86
nC/cm2) and QGD (28 nC/cm2) are obtained.
Compared with PG-MOS, QG and QGD are reduced
by 72.3% and 75.4%, respectively. As a result,
the figures of merit RON × QG and RON × QGD are
improved by a factor of 3.4 and 3.9, respectively, in
the proposed MOSFET.
FIGURE 12. (a) Test circuit configuration for gate charge, where
each device has an area of 0.1 cm2 . (b) The gate charge
characteristics of the two studied MOSFETs.
 Conclusion
A power MOSFET with P-base Schottky diode and built- in channel diode is proposed.
• The P-base Schottky diode inactivates the body PiN diode so that the reverse conduction current is
fully carried out by the built-in channel diode.
• Consequently, superior third quadrant characteristics are obtained.
• Simulation results indicate that, compared with PG-MOS, the proposed one has a similar specific-on
resistance, breakdown voltage, but has a much smaller QGD and significantly improved reverse
recovery performance.
• Although the method in this article is applied to planar gate power MOSFET, the proposed method
can be easily applied to any other power MOSFET structures.
• Besides, the Schottky barrier height to P-base must be carefully controlled to meet the requirements
of PiN diode inactivation and the safe operating area.
• In general, the method proposed in this article could be a highly promising approach to achieve fast
reverse recovery of the power MOSFETs.
Thank you for listening