Lateral AlGaN/GaN Schottky Barrier Diode With Arrayed p-GaN Islands Termination

A lateral Schottky barrier diode (SBD) on p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure with arrayed p-GaN islands termination (API-SBD) is proposed and investigated in this work. On the basis of the unique design approach, API-SBD presents a reduced reverse leakage current (
${I}_{R}$
) with one order of magnitude lower than that of counterpart SBD with the only recessed anode (R-SBD). The turn-on voltage (
${V}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$
) of API-SBD is nearly the same as that of R-SBD, which shows an effective improvement of the tradeoff between
${V}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$
and
${I}_{R}$
. The breakdown voltage (BV) of API-SBD is obviously improved due to the introduction of p-GaN islands termination by shielding the high electric field from the Schottky junction. In addition, the capacitance of API-SBD is approximately a half of that of R-SBD. The fabricated API-SBD with a 15-
$\mu \text{m}$
anode–cathode distance exhibits a
${V}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$
of ~0.59 V, an
${I}_{R}$
of ~10 nA/mm (at −100 V), and a BV of 1070 V (at
${1}~\mu \text{A}$
/mm). It is worth noting that the fabrication process of API-SBD is fully compatible with that of p-GaN HEMT, which is helpful for the monolithic integration.