Pulse voltage stress degradation of 4H-SiC Schottky diodes studied by I-V and noise measurements

Silicon Carbide (SiC) Schottky diodes were stressed with high voltage pulses of 3 to 6KV in an ESD experiment. Diode degradations were studied by I-V and low frequency (LF) noise measurements. The degraded I-V characteristics are similar to the ones of Schottky diodes with barrier height inhomogeneities. Noise results suggest that the LF noise sources are connected with defects near the metal-semiconductor interface in depletion region of degraded SiC diode.