Deep power diode

A semiconductor device comprising

• at least two integral regions of semiconductor material;
• each region having a predetermined level of resistivity, a predetermined type conductivity, and two opposed major surfaces which are, respectively, the top and bottom surfaces thereof;
• each of the at least two regions being produced from individual wafers, or bodies, of semiconductor material oriented in an abutting surface to surface relationship and joined to each other by a layer of recrystallized semiconductor material of portions of the mutually adjacent surfaces of the wafers formed in situ by thermal gradient zone melting;
• the semiconductor material of at least one of the regions being recrystallized semiconductor material of its respective wafer formed in situ by the migration of a melt of metal-rich semiconductor material along a thermal gradient aligned parallel with a first preferred crystal axis of the material of the respective wafer by the same thermal gradient zone melting process practiced at a predetermined elevated temperature which joined the two regions together, and
• the predetermined level of resistivity and the predetermined type conductivity of the recrystallized semiconductor material being determined by the solid solubility limit of that metal of the melt migrated through the wafer in that semiconductor material at that predetermined elevated temperature to impart the level of resistivity and type conductivity thereto.