Simulation Study on Electrical Characteristics of P-NiO/ β -Ga2O3 Heterojunction Lateral Schottky Barrier Diodes

doi:10.16553/j.cnki.issn1000-985x.2025.0232

Abstract

Abstract: Gallium oxide （β-Ga₂O₃） is endowed with broad application prospects in the field of power devices， as it possesses a wide bandgap， a high critical breakdown electric field， and low-cost substrates. However， the development of β-Ga₂O₃ homojunction Schottky barrier diodes （SBD） is restricted by the bottleneck of P-type doping technology. To address this issue， a P-NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction SBD structure was proposed， in which P-NiO was used to replace P-type β-Ga₂O₃.The effects of P-NiO doping concentration， P-NiO thickness （W）， and anode length （L_a） on the electrical properties of devices were studied by means of Sentaurus TCAD software. The results show that the increase of P-NiO doping concentration leads to the expansion of the depletion region to the side of the β-Ga₂O₃ material， resulting in the improvement of the uniformity of the electric field distribution. When the P-NiO doping concentration is 3×10¹⁸ cm^-3， the performance is the best. At this time， the specific on-resistance （R_on，sp） is 1.411 mΩ·cm²， the reverse breakdown voltage is 3 312.2 V， and the power figure of merit （PFOM） is 7.77 GW/cm². L_a and W are further optimized to alleviate the edge electric field concentration effect. Finally， the R_on，sp of the device reduces to 0.823 mΩ·cm²， the reverse breakdown voltage increases to 3 638.3 V， and the PFOM reaches 16.08 GW/cm². The structure of this paper provides a theoretical basis for the design and development of high performance β-Ga₂O₃ SBD.

Key words: gallium oxide; nickel oxide; Schottky barrier diode; specific on-resistance; breakdown voltage; power figure of merit; simulation study

CLC Number:

TN311⁺.7

LIU Jinhua, YU Jiangang, LI Ziwei, LI Wangwang, YANG Xiaoli, LEI Cheng, LIANG Ting. Simulation Study on Electrical Characteristics of P-NiO/ β -Ga₂O₃ Heterojunction Lateral Schottky Barrier Diodes[J]. Journal of Synthetic Crystals, 2026, 55(4): 609-618.

Figures/Tables 8

Fig.1 P-NiO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction SBD. （a） Structural parameter diagram；（b） schematic diagram of electric field peak value interception

Table1 Main material parameters of β -Ga2O3 and NiO for simulation

Parameter	β-Ga₂O₃	NiO
Energy bandgap/eV	4.6~4.9	3.8~4.2
Dielectric constant	10.2	11.8
Electron affinity/eV	4.0	1.8
Effective hole mass	—	6
Effective electron mass	0.28	—
Critical electric field/（MV·cm^-1）	8	4.8~6.2

Fig.2 Electrical characteristics of devices with different P-NiO doping concentrations. （a） Forward conduction characteristics；（b） breakdown characteristics；（c） Von and Ron，sp；（d） BV and PFOM

Fig.3 Electric field peak values of devices with different P-NiO doping concentrations. （a） E1 point horizontal cross-section electric field peak values；（b） E2 point horizontal cross-section electric field peak values

Fig.4 Electrical characteristics of devices with different anode lengths. （a） Von and Ron，sp；（b） BV and PFOM

Fig.5 Electric field peak values of devices with different anode lengths. （a） E1 point horizontal cross-section electric field peak values；（b） E2 point horizontal cross-section electric field peak values

Fig.6 Electrical characteristics of devices with different P-NiO thicknesses. （a） Von and Ron，sp；（b） BV and PFOM

Fig.7 Electric field peak values of device with different P-NiO thicknesses. （a） E1 point vertical cross-section electric field peak values；（b） E2 point vertical cross-section electric field peak values

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Simulation Study on Electrical Characteristics of P-NiO/ β -Ga₂O₃ Heterojunction Lateral Schottky Barrier Diodes

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