The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 28, 2010
Filed:
Mar. 16, 2009
Zoltan Ring, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Helmut Hagleitner, Zebulon, NC (US);
Jason Patrick Henning, Carrboro, NC (US);
Andrew Mackenzie, Cary, NC (US);
Scott Allen, Apex, NC (US);
Scott Thomas Sheppard, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Richard Peter Smith, Carrboro, NC (US);
Saptharishi Sriram, Cary, NC (US);
Allan Ward, Iii, Durham, NC (US);
Zoltan Ring, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Helmut Hagleitner, Zebulon, NC (US);
Jason Patrick Henning, Carrboro, NC (US);
Andrew Mackenzie, Cary, NC (US);
Scott Allen, Apex, NC (US);
Scott Thomas Sheppard, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Richard Peter Smith, Carrboro, NC (US);
Saptharishi Sriram, Cary, NC (US);
Allan Ward, III, Durham, NC (US);
Cree, Inc., Durham, NC (US);
Abstract
A passivated semiconductor structure and associated method are disclosed. The structure includes a silicon carbide substrate or layer; an oxidation layer on the silicon carbide substrate for lowering the interface density between the silicon carbide substrate and the thermal oxidation layer; a first sputtered non-stoichiometric silicon nitride layer on the thermal oxidation layer for reducing parasitic capacitance and minimizing device trapping; a second sputtered non-stoichiometric silicon nitride layer on the first layer for positioning subsequent passivation layers further from the substrate without encapsulating the structure; a sputtered stoichiometric silicon nitride layer on the second sputtered layer for encapsulating the structure and for enhancing the hydrogen barrier properties of the passivation layers; and a chemical vapor deposited environmental barrier layer of stoichiometric silicon nitride for step coverage and crack prevention on the encapsulant layer.