Contact on a P-type region
AssigneeSGS-Thomson Microelectronics S.A.
InventorCyril Furio
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a contacting structure on a lightly-doped P-type region of a semiconductor component, this P-type region being positively biased during the on-state operation of said component, including, on the P region a layer of a platinum silicide, or of a metal silicide having with the P-type silicon a barrier height lower than or equal to that of the platinum silicide.
Claims26
A contacting structure directly in contact with a lightly-doped P-type silicon region of a semiconductor component, comprising:
- a layer of platinum silicide, or of a metal silicide directly in contact with the lightly-doped P-type silicon region and having, with the P-type region, a Schottky barrier height lower than or equal to that of the platinum silicide or of the metal silicide, the lightly-doped P-type silicon region being positively biased during an on-state operation of the semiconductor component;
- and
- wherein the lightly-doped P-type silicon region has a surface doping level on the order of 1015 to 1016 atoms/cm3.
An active semiconductor device, comprising:
- a lightly-doped P-type region;
- and
- a metal silicide region disposed in direct contact with said lightly-doped P-type region and exhibiting with said P-type region a Schottky barrier height equal or lower than a Schottky barrier height of platinum silicide;
- wherein during operation of said semiconductor device said lightly-doped P-type region is positively biased in an ON state of said semiconductor device;
- and wherein the P-type region has a surface doping level on the order of 1015 to 1016 atoms/cm3.
A semiconductor device, comprising:
- a lightly-doped P-type region being positively biased during an ON state of the semiconductor device;
- a contacting structure including said lightly-doped P-type region being directly in contact with a metallic region and forming a Schottky barrier with said metallic region, wherein said metallic region includes a metallic silicide and said Schottky barrier has a Schottky breakdown voltage at essentially 0.
A method of operating a semiconductor device having an anode and a cathode, comprising acts of:
- conducting a first and negligible amount of current when the anode of the device is forward biased relative to the cathode of the device and a voltage across the device is less than a first positively valued voltage;
- conducting a second amount of current that varies linearly according to the voltage across the device when the anode of the device is forward biased relative to the cathode of the device and the voltage across the device is greater than the first positively valued voltage;
- conducting a third amount of current that varies linearly according to the voltage across the device when the anode of the device is reverse biased relative to the cathode of the device and the voltage across the device greater than a first negatively valued voltage and less than the first positively valued voltage;
- conducting a fourth amount of current that is substantially the same as the third amount of current conducted by the device at the first negatively valued voltage when the anode of the device is reverse biased relative to the cathode of the device and the voltage across the device is less than the first negatively valued voltage and greater than a second negatively valued voltage;
- and
- conducting a fifth amount of current when the anode of the device is reverse biased relative to the cathode of the device and the voltage across the device is greater than the second negatively valued voltage, the fifth amount of current being substantially independent of the voltage across the device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.