Analysis of 1.

2 kV 4H-SiC Trench-Gate MOSFETs

with Thick Trench Bottom Oxide
Aditi Agarwal
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Email: aagarw12@ncsu.edu
Kijeong Han
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Email: khan5@ncsu.edu
B. Jayant Baliga
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Email: bjbaliga@ncsu.edu

Abstract—The 1.2 kV-rated trench-gate SiC power MOSFET
with thick trench bottom oxide is analyzed and compared with
previous trench-gate SiC power MOSFET structures. Specific on-
resistance (Ron,sp ), breakdown voltage (BV), threshold voltage
(VT H ), gate-drain capacitance (Cgd,sp ) and gate charge (Qgd )
were extracted using numerical simulations for trench bottom
oxide thickness between 500 Å and 8000 Å. It was found that the
electric field in the trench bottom oxide was below 4 MV/cm for
oxide thickness beyond 4000 Å. An analytical model is proposed
to allow estimation of the electric field in the trench bottom
oxide. The Ron,sp for the thick bottom oxide structure was 1.9
mΩ − cm2 (at Vgs of 20 V), Cgd,sp (at Vds = 1000 V) was 417
pF/cm2 and Qgd,sp (at Vgs =20 V, Rg =10 Ω, Vds =800V) was
671 nC/cm2 , which is significantly better than most planar-
gate devices. This structure has superior specific on-resistance
compared with previous trench-gate and planar-gate structures.
Index Terms—Silicon Carbide; Trench-gate MOSFET (UMOS-
FET); specific on-resistance; threshold voltage; breakdown voltage;
reverse transfer capacitance; gate charge; trench bottom oxide
I. I NTRODUCTION
Silicon trench-gate power MOSFETs were commercialized
in 1990s. It was found that the Silicon trench-gate struc-
tures have lower specific on-state resistance due to increased
channel density and elimination of JFET resistance. This has
inspired the development of 4H-SiC trench-gate MOSFETs.
4H-SiC is an excellent material for power devices due to
its high BFOM (approx. 1000), wide band gap (3.26eV) and
high thermal conductivity (3.7 W/cm/K). However, due to its
high critical electric field for breakdown, the conventional SiC
trench-gate MOSFET suffers from high electric field in the
gate oxide which raises reliability concerns.
Different structural modifications have been proposed and
demonstrated to reduce electric field in the gate oxide. The
SiC trench-gate power MOSFET structure with a P+ shielding
region at the trench bottom was first proposed and patented
in 1995 [1]. This structure was further modified by using a
second P+ shielding region adjacent to the P-base region to
reduce the threshold voltage and Ron,sp [2]. A 1.2 kV-rated
SiC trench-gate MOSFETs with double trenches have been
reported by Rohm with Ron,sp of 2.99 mΩ − cm2 [3] and
by Infineon with Ron,sp of 3.3 mΩ − cm2 [4]. A trench-gate
SiC MOSFET with thick bottom oxide has been reported by
Takaya, et al, with Ron,sp of 4.4 mΩ − cm2 and BV of 1400
V [5]. In this paper, a comparison of these approaches for 1.2
kV-rated devices is performed using numerical simulations.
A detailed analysis of the thick bottom oxide structure is
also presented to demonstrate the electric field reduction
phenomena.
II. A NALYSIS OF TRENCH - GATE MOSFET WITH THICK
BOTTOM OXIDE
Numerical simulations were first performed to determine
the Ron,sp (at Vgs =20 V), Vth , BV, Cgd,sp (at Vds =1000V)
and Qgd,sp (at Vgs = 20 V, Rg =10Ω, Vds =800V) for the
trench-gate MOSFET with thick trench bottom oxide using
different oxide thicknesses (tT BO ) varying from 500 Å to
8000 Å. Fig. 1(a) shows the simulated structure with all its
dimensions. A gate oxide thickness of 500 Å was used for all
the structures. As expected, the Ron,sp and Vth were found to
remain independent of tT BO at a value of 1.91 mΩ − cm2
and 3.43 V, respectively. The variations of the BV, Cgd,sp
and Qgd,sp with trench bottom oxide thickness are shown in
Fig. 1(b). BV is found to decrease gradually with increasing
tT BO but remains above 1550 V. Since the breakdown occurs
around the trench corner, the lower BV can be attributed to
reduced shielding effect of the P-base region at larger oxide
thicknesses. It should be noted that the BV is still much
above the rated value of 1.2 kV. Reverse transfer capacitance
(Cgd,sp ) shows a decrease with increasing oxide thickness,
which is expected because of decreasing oxide capacitance,
Cox . Consequently, Qgd,sp follows a decreasing trend as well.
Additionally, electric field in the off-state at rated voltage of
1200 V was studied along different cross sections. Fig. 2 shows
the schematic of the MOSFET structure with different cross
sections identified. Fig. 3 (a) and (b) show the electric field in
the y-direction below the trench (along the green line). It is
observed that the electric field in the oxide reduces as tT BO is
increased. Fig. 3 (c) shows the electric field in the y-direction
in the middle of the mesa region (along the blue line). This
electric field profile remains approximately the same for all
structures with different tT BO . Fig. 3 (d) shows the electric
field in the SiC just below the bottom of the trench (along the
path from point C to point B). The electric field in the SiC
at point B is observed to be smaller than but close to that at
point C. The analytical model developed in the next section
uses the approximation that they are equal. It is demonstrated

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Fig. 1. (a) Simulated UMOSFET structure with thick trench bottom oxide (b) Breakdown Voltage, Cgd,sp (at Vds =1000V), Qgd,sp (at Vgs =20V, Vds =800V,
Rg =10Ω) versus tT BO .
Fig. 2. Schematic of UMOSFET structure showing the cross sections used
for electric field.
in the next section that in spite of this approximation, the
analytical model is in agreement with the simulations.
III. A NALYTICAL M ODEL FOR E LECTRIC F IELD IN
T RENCH B OTTOM OXIDE
An analytical model that allows estimation of the electric
field in the trench bottom oxide is proposed in this section.
This model can be used to determine the thickness of the
trench bottom oxide required to reduce the electric field in it,
during the high voltage blocking mode, to below the reliability
limit (∼ 4 MV/cm). The model is developed using the electric
field profiles in the drift region of the trench-gate SiC power
MOSFET as illustrated in Fig. 4.
The voltage is supported across the P-base/N-drift layer
junction when a positive bias is applied to the drain with zero
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gate bias. In general, a triangular electric field distribution is
obtained for the solution of Poissons equation with uniform
doping concentration in the N-drift region [6]. In the case
of typical SiC power MOSFETs, including our designs, the
thickness of the drift region is chosen to produce a trapezoidal
electric field profile as shown on the left hand side by the blue
lines in Fig. 4 for the mesa region. The maximum electric field
at the P-N junction [EM,SiC (A)] can be related to the applied
drain bias (VD ) for this case using:
VD qND
EM,SiC (A) = + (tEP I − xJP ) (1)
(tEP I − xJP ) 2s
where tEP I is the thickness of the epitaxial layer, xJP is
the P-base junction depth, q is the electron charge and s is
the SiC dielectric constant. For the case of our 1.2 kV rated
devices, the epitaxial layer has a thickness of 10 µm and
doping concentration of 8×1015 cm−3 . The maximum electric
field at the P-N junction for this case is 2×106 V/cm at a drain
bias of 1200 V. The electric field [ESiC (D)] at the interface
between the epitaxial layer and the substrate (location D in
Fig. 4) is given by:
qND
ESiC (D) = EM,SiC (A) − (tEP I − xJP ) (2)
s
This electric field is 5.8 × 105 V/cm at a drain bias of
1200 V for our devices. In the case of trench-gate SiC power
MOSFETs, the electric field distribution in the y-direction
below the trench-gate oxide can be assumed to be the same as
in the mesa region. Consequently, the electric field distribution
below the trench bottom is as illustrated by the green profile
in Fig. 4 on the right hand side. The electric field [ESiC (B)]
at the interface between the trench bottom oxide and the SiC
drift layer is then equal to the electric field [ESiC (C)] in the
Fig. 3. Electric field distributions in off-state at 1200 V for different tT BO between 0.1 to 0.8 microns (a) along the green path, (b) along the green path
zoomed in on the oxide region, (c) along the blue path, (d) along the path from point C to point B.

Fig. 4. Electric field distributions in the trench gate SiC power MOSFET with thick trench bottom oxide.

mesa region. This electric field is given by:

ESiC (B) =ESiC (C) ESiC (B) + ESiC (D)

VD = (ET BO tT BO )+ (tEP I −tT ) (4)
qND (3) 2
=EM,SiC (A) − (tG + tT BO − xJP )
s where tT is the depth of the trench given by (tG + tT BO ).
The electric field (ET BO ) in the trench bottom oxide can be
where tG is the depth of the gate electrode and tT BO is derived from this equation:
the thickness of the trench bottom oxide. The applied drain 
voltage (VD ) is supported across the trench bottom oxide and 1  ESiC (B) + ESiC (D) 
ET BO = × VD −
the SiC drift layer located beneath it if the gate electrode is tT BO 2
held at zero bias in the blocking state. Assuming a uniform
 (5)
electric field (ET BO ) in the trench bottom oxide layer yields: × (tEP I − tG − tT BO )

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 The electric field in the trench bottom oxide computed by
using the above equation for a drain bias of 1200 V is shown in
Fig. 5 for oxide thickness ranging from 0.1 to 1 µm. A P-base
junction depth (xJP ) of 0.6 µm and gate depth (tG ) of 0.9 µm
were used to match values used in the numerical simulations.
The electric field observed in the numerical simulations along
path B was shown in Fig. 3 (a,b). The field is observed to
vary across the oxide. The value of the electric field at the
center of the trench bottom oxide is plotted in Fig. 5 (square
data points) for comparison with the analytical model. A very
good agreement is observed validating the analytical model.
It can be concluded from Fig. 5 that a trench bottom oxide
thickness of 0.4 µm is sufficient to reduce the average electric
field in it below 4 MV/cm.
Fig. 5. Electric field in trench bottom oxide (blue line represents anaytical
model and square data points are simulation results)
It is worth noting that Gausses Law requires the electric
field in the trench bottom oxide to be 2.5-times (ratio of SiC
to oxide permittivity) that in the SiC below the oxide. This is
observed in Fig. 3 (a,b) for the electric fields obtained using
numerical simulations at the oxide-SiC interface. In order for
this to be consistent with the reduced average electric field in
the trench bottom oxide, the electric field in the SiC at the
oxide interface becomes depressed as seen in Fig. 3 (a,b).
IV. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
This sections presents a comparison of the thick trench
bottom oxide structure to the basic trench MOSFET structure
(without gate shielding) and other UMOSFET structures with
some form of gate shielding. Fig. 6 [(a) the basic trench-gate
MOSFET, (b) the trench-gate MOSFET with thick bottom
oxide, (c) trench MOSFET with dual P+ shielding regions, (d)
Rohm double trench structure with P-region below the source
trench, (e) Infineon CoolSiC structure with deep P+ regions]
shows all the structures used for TCAD simulations with their
dimensions.
Fig. 7 shows the electric field at the breakdown condition
for three structures. It can be seen from Fig. 7 (a) that there is
a very high electric field (∼17 MV/cm) in the trench bottom
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oxide for the basic trench-gate structure, which is much above
the electric field for dielectric breakdown of SiO2 . Thicker
oxide at the trench bottom reduces the electric field in the
trench bottom oxide [Fig. 7 (b)] to below 4 × 106 V/cm.
The Rohm structure Fig. 6 (d) was found to exhibit some
alleviation of stress in the gate oxide as observed in Fig. 7(c)
but it suffers from early breakdown due to reach-through in
the P-base region. The Infineon structure (Fig. 6(e)) was found
to have low electric field in the gate oxide.
Fig. 8 shows the on-state current flow lines for all the
structures simulated at VGS =20V and VDS =0.1V. The thick
trench bottom oxide structure Fig. 6(b) has excellent current
flow similar to the basic structure Fig. 6(a). However, current
constriction is observed for structures in Fig. 6(c) and Fig.
6(e), which results in increase of their on-resistance.
Table I summarizes the simulation results for all the struc-
tures Fig. 6(a-e). Structures Fig. 6 (a,b) show excellent Ron,sp ,
almost half that of Infineon structure Fig. 6(e) because of lower
cell pitch and lack of current constricting regions. However,
structure Fig. 6(e) has a lower Cgd,sp when compared to
structure Fig. 6(b) because of very small overlap between gate
and drain. The High-Frequency Figure-of-Merit (HF-FOM)
[Ron,sp * Cgd,sp ] calculated for all the devices is given in
Table I. The Infineon structure Fig. 6(e) has the best value
followed by structures Fig. 6(b) and Fig. 6(c).
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, a detailed study of 1.2kV trench-gate MOS-
FET with thick bottom oxide was carried out. It is demon-
strated that electric field reduction occurs with increasing
bottom oxide thickness (tT BO ). An analytical model was
developed to calculate the electric field reduction in the
trench bottom oxide. Different UMOSFET structures (with
and without gate shielding) were simulated for Ron,sp , BV
and Cgd,sp . The thick oxide structure was found to have much
lower Ron,sp than other structures. It has the second best HF-
FOM after the Infineon CoolSiC design.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by PowerAmerica Institute at NC
State University.
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Fig. 6. Cross-Sectional View and dimensions of the SiC Trench MOSFET structures (a) Basic trench MOSFET, (b) UMOSFET with Thick Trench Bottom
Oxide, (c) UMOSFET with dual-shielding regions, (d) Rohm double-trench structure, (e) Infineon CoolSiC structure.

Fig. 7. Electric Field densities in off-state at SiC breakdown condition for (a) Basic trench-gate MOSFET, (b) UMOSFET with thick bottom oxide, (c) Rohm
double trench structure.

Fig. 8. On-state Current Flow lines (Vgs =20V, Vds =0.1V) for (a) Basic trench-gate MOSFET, (b) Thick trench bottom oxide MOSFET, (c) Dual P+ shield
trench MOSFET, (d) Rohm double-trench structure, (e) Infineon CoolSiC structure.

TABLE I
C OMPARISON OF SIMULATION RESULTS FOR DIFFERENT MOSFET STRUCTURES

MOSFET structure Cell Pitch (µm) Ron,sp (mΩ − cm2 ) BV (V) Cgd,sp (pF/cm2 ) HF-FOM (mΩ − pF )
Basic UMOSFET (a) 1.3 1.8 1645 734 1321
UMOSFET with 1.3 1.89 1610 417 788
thick trench bottom
oxide (b)
UMOSFET with Dual 1.3 2.68 1672 289 775
shielding regions (c)
Rohm double-trench 3.0 2.44 756 (Reach-through 366 893
MOSFET (d) limited)
Infineon CoolSiC 2.8 3.77 1538 10 37
MOSFET (e)

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