Nearly ideal unguarded vanadium-silicide Schottky-barrier diodes

Nearly ideal VLSI unguarded Schottky-barrier diodes were made using a VSi
2
/nSi junction. The reverse-current leakage of these diodes is fully explained in terms of electric-field enhancement present near the diode edges. The values of the diode quality factor were nearly equal to unity and were identical to those of guarded diodes built on the same wafer. The ideality of the VSi
2
/nSi diode characteristics is attributed to controlled outdiffusion of silicon that occurs around the diode perimeter.