10 MeV Proton Irradiation Effect on 4H-SiC nMOSFET Electrical Parameters

This work presents the 10 MeV proton irradiation effects on 4H-SiC MOSFETs at different fluences. MOSFETs main electrical parameters, such as the channel mobility (µEFF), threshold voltage (VTH), transconductance (gm) and subthreshold current, were analyzed using the time bias stress instability (BSI) technique. Applying this method allowed us to study the effect of carrier interaction with proton induced defects (traps), whether in the bulk or at the interface. Improvements, such as VTH stabilization in time and a significant increase of the µEFF at high fluencies, have been noticed. We assume that this behavior is connected with the atomic diffusion from the SiO2/SiC interface, towards the epilayer during proton irradiation. These atoms, mainly Nitrogen, may create other bonds by occupying various vacancies coming from Silicon and Carbon’s dangling bond. Therefore, by increasing the number of passivated Carbon atoms, we show that high irradiation proton could be a way to improve the SiO2/SiC interface quality.