Role of Temperature in the Radiation-Induced Damage of Silicon-Carbide Diodes by High-Energy Charged Particles

For the first time, a comparative study of the effect of electron and proton irradiation at a temperature of 20–500°C on the characteristics of semiconductor devices based on silicon carbide, i.e., commercial high-voltage 4 H -SiC Schottky diodes, is carried out. The diodes are irradiated with 15-MeV protons and 0.9‑MeV electrons. It is found that the most sensitive parameter, which determines the radiation resistance of devices, is the base resistance, which monotonically increases with the radiation dose D . It is shown that, under low-temperature (“cold”) irradiation, the efficiency of compensation of a semiconductor by proton irradiation is about 400 times higher than the efficiency of electron irradiation. Under “hot” (high temperature) irradiation, the radiation resistance of diodes is several times higher than the resistance of diodes under “cold” irradiation. The rate of formation of deep centers in the upper half of the band gap of silicon carbide decreased with increasing irradiation temperature.