Characteristics of Aluminum-silicon Schottky Barrier Diode

Abstract

Aluminumn-type silicon Schottky barrier diodes with near-ideal characteristics have recently been developed. In this paper the characteristics of such a Schottky barrier are discussed. The I–V characteristics agree well with the theoretical thermionic emission model. The barrier height is determined from the saturation current, temperature dependence of forward current, and photoemission to be0.69±0.01eV. The switching measurements show no minority carrier storage, as expected. The low-frequency noise is very low and is comparable to the best p-n junction and guard-ring Schottky barrier. These desirable features, coupled with the simple process of the Al-nSi Schottky barrier, make them attractive in a variety of applications.

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