Harris Corporation

Rca Inc.

Intersil Corporation

Other

USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Intersil Americas Inc.

Harris Semiconductor Patents Inc.

John M Neilson

Carl Franklin Wheatley, Jr

Victor A Temple

Frederick P Jones

Christopher L Rexer

Francis J Kub

Karl D Hobart

Joseph A Yedinak

Norbert W Brackelmanns

John Lawrence Benjamin

Linda Susan Brush

Louise E Skurkey

Paul J Wodarczyk

Richard Douglas Stokes

Christopher Boguslaw Kocon

Stephen Daley Arthur

Thomas E Grebs

Wolfgang F Dietz

Donald L Watrous

John P Russell

Wojciech Rosnowski

Harold R Ronan, Jr

Robert S Wrathall

Anup Bhalla

Raymond T Ford

Frank Stensney

Patrick R Koons

Jacques M Assour

John R Bender

Theresa I Bates

Maxime Zafrani

Frederich P Jones

Jeffrey G Mansmann

Claire E Jackoski

Stanley J Klodzinski

Christopher Boguslow Kocon

Christopher Michael Scarba

Mark L Rineheimer

A double-side IGBT (DIGBT) phase leg architecture that uses the DIGBT as a substitute for a free wheeling diode to achieve reduced turn-on loss and reduced reverse recovery peak current during turn-on is described and characterized. Approximately a 50% reduction in reverse recovery peak current and an 80% reduction in recovery charge are achieved. In addition, low power dissipation (&#x2248;1 A current level) protection circuitry is described that can be incorporated into the DIGBT phase leg architecture to allow the flow of reverse current even if the gate driver circuit is disabled so that conventional high current free wheeling diodes are not required to provide protection.

Double sided IGBT phase leg architecture and clocking method for reduced turn on loss

One embodiment of a semiconductor device includes a laterally extending semiconductor base, a buffer adjacent the base and having a first conductivity type dopant, and a laterally extending emitter adjacent the buffer and opposite the base and having a second conductivity type dopant. The buffer is relatively thin and has a first conductivity type dopant concentration greater than a second conductivity type dopant concentration in adjacent emitter portions to provide a negative temperature coefficient for current gain and a positive temperature coefficient for forward voltage for the device. The buffer may be silicon or germanium. A low temperature bonded interface may be between the emitter and the buffer or the buffer and the base. Another embodiment of a device may include a laterally extending localized lifetime killing portion between oppositely doped first and second laterally extending portions. The localized lifetime killing portion may comprise a plurality of laterally confined and laterally spaced apart lifetime killing regions. Another device may include one or more PN junctions.

Devices formable by low temperature direct bonding

A method for making at least one semiconductor power device with current conduction in a vertical direction from a plurality of semiconductor substrates includes processing at least one surface of each of two semiconductor substrates to form at least one of a metal layer and a doped region. The substrates are bonded together so that the at least one processed surface of each of the two semiconductor substrates define outer surfaces of the semiconductor device. The method further includes annealing the bonded together substrates at an anneal temperature so as to not adversely effect the processed surfaces. The method allows the making of a double sided semiconductor power device with a reduction in the number of sequential processing steps. The direct bonding approach allows current production recipes for fabricating single sided power devices to be used without requiring a separate process sequence.

Methods for making semiconductor devices by low temperature direct bonding

A method for making a semiconductor device from a plurality of semiconductor substrates includes the steps of: processing at least one surface of at least one of the substrates; thinning at least one of the substrates; bonding the processed and thinned substrates together so that the at least one processed surface defines an outer surface of the semiconductor device; and annealing the bonded together substrates at a relatively low anneal temperature so as to not adversely effect the at least one processed surface. The step of thinning preferably comprises removing a surface portion of the least one substrate opposite the processed surface, to a thickness of less than about 200 .mu.m. A gettering layer may be formed for the at least one substrate prior to thinning. Accordingly, the step of thinning removes the gettering layer. An implanted region may be formed at a surface of the at least one substrate opposite the processed surface prior to bonding. The implanting may comprise implanting with a lifetime killing implant or a dopant. An epitaxial layer may be formed on the backside of a substrate. The step of processing may include forming a metal layer. Thus, the anneal temperature is preferably less than a temperature related to a characteristic of the metal layer. For an aluminum layer, the anneal temperature is preferably less than about 450.degree. C. If a barrier metal is used between the aluminum and substrate, the anneal temperature may be in a range of about 450 to 550.degree. C.

Advanced methods for making semiconductor devices by low temperature

A high voltage MOSFET with low on-resistance and a method of lowering the on-resistance for a specific device breakdown voltage of a high voltage MOSFET. The MOSFET includes a blocking layer of a first conductivity type having vertical sections of a second conductivity type or the blocking layer may include alternating vertical sections of a first and second conductivity type.

High voltage mosfet structure

A method of fabricating a MOS-gated semiconductor device in which arsenic dopant is implanted through a mask to form a first layer, boron dopant is implanted through the mask to form a second layer deeper than the first layer, and in which a single diffusion step diffuses the implanted arsenic and the implanted boron at the same time to form a P+ body region with an N+ source region therein and a P type channel region.

Method of making a MOS-gated semiconductor device with a single diffusion

High voltage semiconductor structure

A method of controlling minority carrier lifetime in a semiconductor device in which the density of recombination centers is controlled so that the recombination centers are concentrated in a thin buffer layer adjacent a blocking layer in one of two bonded wafers. The density is controlled by misaligning crystal axes of the two wafers or by doping the bonding surface of one of the wafers before the wafers are bonded. Both methods generate recombination centers in the thin buffer layer that forms around or adjacent the bonding interface. A semiconductor device made by this method includes a buffer layer with a significantly higher density of recombination centers than the adjacent blocking layer to thereby improve control of minority carrier lifetime.

Lifetime control for semiconductor devices

A method of fabricating a UMOS semiconductor device includes a blanket implant of an N type dopant into a surface of a substrate (for forming source regions), a high energy implant of a P type dopant into the substrate (for forming body regions), an etch through a hard mask to form trenches and mesas (each of the mesas having a source region at its top and a body region below), and concurrently (i) providing a gate dielectric on the sidewalls of the trenches and (ii) redistributing the dopants so that the body regions extend deeper into the substrate beneath the centers of the mesas than adjacent the walls of the trenches. Contact windows are etched in the mesas to allow electrical contact with the source regions and the body regions. The initial implant of P type dopant may be a blanket implant or an implant through a mask which concentrates the P type dopant in the centers of the mesas.

Method of fabricating UMOS semiconductor devices using a self-aligned,

A gate electrode control structure of an MOS-gated semiconductor device includes four doped regions including a first (source) region forming a first P-N junction with an enclosing composite region comprising a second, lightly doped (channel) region wholly enclosing a third heavily doped (body) region partly enclosing the first region, and a fourth (drain) region forming a P-N junction with the third region. The gate electrode control structure is fabricated using known gate electrode self-alignment doping processes but wherein, in the process for forming the third heavily doped region, a spacer layer is provided on the gate electrode for defining a spacing between the third region and the channel region with an improved degree of precision.

Method of making MOS-gated semiconductor devices

A pattern for a wafer for a MOS-gated semiconductor device includes plural ribbons extending from a source contact region to another source contact region, each of the ribbons having a single source region between two channel regions, so as to increase the device's current-carrying capability per unit area relative to the prior art. The pattern increases the size of the active current-carrying area (the channel and neck regions of the device) relative to the area of the source contact areas. The source contact regions may be discrete or linear, and the ribbons may extend therefrom perpendicularly or at other angles.

Method of forming MOS-gated semiconductor devices having mesh geometry

The performance of COMFET-based electrical switches may be improved by connecting a MOSFET substantially in parallel with the COMFET. In a monolithic embodiment, a MOSFET drain region may be added to a surface of a COMFET and shorted to the emitter region of the COMFET. The invention decreases the turn-off time of the COMFET, reduces the discontinuity at current direction reversal and increases the latch-up current of a semiconductor switch.

COMFET switch and method

The sensitivity of breakdown voltage to temperature and dV/dT induced currents is reduced in semiconductor power devices having a wide base transistor. The sensitivity is reduced by diverting current from the emitter of the wide base transistor to the base of the wide base transistor (an emitter short that does not reduce breakdown voltage) or by injecting a current into the base of the wide base transistor to its collector (an injected current that may lower the breakdown voltage, but no more than that related to temperature and capacitive current). The invention finds application in both epitaxial grown and substrate based devices.

Apparatus and method for increasing breakdown voltage ruggedness in

A MOS-gated semiconductor device may be manufactured by a process in which the neck region of the device is doped through a previously deposited polysilicon gate. In the method of the present invention, the dopant in the neck region of the device is not subjected to the same temperature history as the body dopant, thereby providing means to increase the ruggedness of the device and providing means by which the threshold voltage of the device may be controlled.

Method of doping a JFET region in a MOS-gated semiconductor device

Mesh geometry for MOS-gated semiconductor devices

Growing community of inventors

Norristown, PA, United States of America

John M Neilson