Promotionsvortrag Physik: „Characterization of device-performance relevant defects in 4H silicon carbide“

Ankündigung des Promotionsvortrags von: Frau Elisabeth Kodolitsch

SiC technology gained a great market attention during the last years, due to excellent performance in high power applications. These applications need effective, reliable, and low-cost SiC devices. Even though, a rapid progress in SiC material growth was realized, the existence of a high density of defects in the bulk and epitaxial layers severely limit the performance of SiC devices. Further-more, it was found that they can also affect the reliability of SiC power devices in several aspects. Even though a basic understanding of these defects was generated during the last years, the im-pact of such crystal defects on the device characteristics is still not completely understood. This needs to be overcome to ensure device performance close to its theoretical limits.

In this work, defects which are suspected to negatively impact the device performance are investi-gated. Thereby, attention was raised to different types of defects, as well as different impact mechanisms. Extended defects which are present in the substrate material, or which can also arise during epitaxial growth process, and are suspected to impact the reverse characteristics of SiC power devices, were investigated in depth. Furthermore, the focus was laid on extended de-fects with regards to reliability issues in SiC power devices. Finally, point defects which can influ-ence the carrier lifetime in SiC bipolar devices were studied.

(Vortrag auf Englisch)

Dem Vortrag schließt sich eine Diskussion von 15 Minuten an. Vortrag und Diskussion sind öffentlich. Diesen Verfahrensteilen folgt ein nicht öffentliches Rigorosum von 45 Minuten.