Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Component Comprising Trench Gate Structures and Shielding Regions

A semiconductor component, comprising:

• gate structures extending into a silicon carbide body from a first surface;
• contact structures extending into the silicon carbide body from the first surface, the gate structures and the contact structures alternating with one another along a first horizontal direction parallel to the first surface;
• body regions in mesa sections of the silicon carbide body between the gate structures and the contact structures;
• shielding regions of a conductivity type of the body regions, the shielding regions, in the silicon carbide body, adjoining a bottom of the contact structures and being spaced apart from the gate structures along the first horizontal direction;
• and
• a drift structure comprising a drift zone and forming first pn junctions with the body regions and Schottky contacts with the contact structures.

A semiconductor component, comprising:

• gate structures extending into a silicon carbide body from a first surface, the gate structures comprising a gate dielectric and a gate electrode, the gate electrode comprising first sections of a metal structure that adjoin the gate dielectric;
• contact structures extending into the silicon carbide body from the first surface, the gate structures and the contact structures alternating with one another along a first horizontal direction parallel to the first surface, and the contact structures comprising second sections of the metal structure that adjoin the silicon carbide body;
• and
• shielding regions which, in the silicon carbide body, adjoin a bottom of the contact structures and are spaced apart from the gate structures along the first horizontal direction.

A method for producing a semiconductor component, the method comprising:

• forming a silicon carbide substrate comprising a body layer formed on a section of a main layer, and a source layer formed on a section of the body layer, a conductivity type of the body layer being opposite to a conductivity type of the source layer and of a drift layer in the main layer;
• forming gate trenches and contact trenches extending through the source layer and the body layer, the trenches alternating along a first horizontal direction parallel to a first main surface of the silicon carbide substrate;
• forming a gate dielectric in the gate trenches;
• forming a metal structure which comprises first sections adjoining the gate dielectric in the gate trenches and second sections in the contact trenches, the second sections adjoining body regions formed from sections of the body layer and source regions formed from sections of the source layer;
• and
• removing third sections of the metal structure that connect the first sections to the second sections.