Demonstration and Analysis of Ultrahigh Forward Current Density Diamond Diodes

A diamond Schottky p-i-n diode (SPIND) with the highest reported current density to date of 116 kA/cm2 is demonstrated, carrying a total current of 1.32 A through a $50-\mu \text {m}$ wide pseudo-vertical diode structure. The diamond SPIND also provides a maximum power handling capacity of ${1.85}~ \text {MW/c}\text {m}^{{2}}$ and a low specific ON-resistance ${R}_{ \mathrm{ON}}S$ of ${0.05}~ \text {m}\Omega \cdot \text {cm}^{{{2}}}$ at a forward bias of 16 V. The diamond Schottky p-i-n (SPIN) diode also shows excellent rectification characteristics with a current ON- OFF-ratio of $\sim {6} \times {10}^{{12}}$. An analytical model including thermionic emission and space charge limited (SCL) current is presented together with Silvaco ATLAS Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) simulations to accurately reproduce the experimental ${J}$ - ${V}$ characteristics using multiple single-trap levels and other physical models emulating a real device. Theoretical calculations from the analytical model show that further improvement in the device turn on voltage and ${R}_{ \mathrm{ON}}{S}$ can be achieved by reducing the defect density and contact resistance in order to approach the ultimate performance in the Mott-Gurney SCL current regime.