Voltage

Engineering

Wide-bandgap semiconductor

Materials science

Layer (electronics)

Limit (mathematics)

Semiconductor

Power semiconductor device

Breakdown voltage

Band gap

Diode

Physics

Nanotechnology

Semiconductor device

Mathematics

Doping

Mathematical analysis

Figure of merit

Heterojunction

Optoelectronics

Electrical engineering

Engineering physics

Nature Communications

Ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor Ga2O3 based electronic devices are expected to perform beyond wide bandgap counterparts GaN and SiC. However, the reported power figure-of-merit hardly can exceed, which is far below the projected Ga2O3 material limit. Major obstacles are high breakdown voltage requires low doping material and PN junction termination, contradicting with low specific on-resistance and simultaneous achieving of n- and p-type doping, respectively. In this work, we demonstrate that Ga2O3 heterojunction PN diodes can overcome above challenges. By implementing the holes injection in the Ga2O3, bipolar transport can induce conductivity modulation and low resistance in a low doping Ga2O3 material. Therefore, breakdown voltage of 8.32 kV, specific on-resistance of 5.24 mΩ⋅cm2, power figure-of-merit of 13.2 GW/cm2, and turn-on voltage of 1.8 V are achieved. The power figure-of-merit value surpasses the 1-D unipolar limit of GaN and SiC. Those Ga2O3 power diodes demonstrate their great potential for next-generation power electronics applications.

Ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor Ga2O3 power diodes