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Reply to Comments on “1.88-mΩ · cm
2
1650-V
Normally on 4H-SiC TI-VJFET”
Yuzhu Li, Petre Alexandrov, and Jian H. Zhao, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—The arguments presented in the above comments are refuted.
The following are pointed out: 1) Veliadis’ papers did not include the
vertical-junction field-effect transistor (VJFET) dimensions required for
readers to make technical analysis and comparison. 2) The current through
the gate p-n junction of a VJFET is also affected by the ohmic contact
and metal spreading resistance; therefore, the external gate terminal
voltage alone does not determine whether a VJFET is operated in bipolar
mode or not. 3) A longer vertical channel with a more invariant or
uniform vertical-channel opening makes it much easier to realize higher
performance and higher voltage normally-off JFETs because of the lower
channel resistance and the larger drain voltage needed to punch through
the drain-to-source barrier.
Index Terms—Junction field effect transistors (JFET), normally-off,
normally-on, power transistors, silicon carbide, vertical channel.
Of primary importance, as Veliadis stated in his Comments,
is that we failed to cite selected SiC vertical-junction field-effect
transistor (VJFET) power-switching device bibliography [1]–[6]; as
such, our claim of record-high performance is dubious.
It should be pointed out that the papers by Veliadis et al. [1]–[6]
were not cited as they did not contain device dimensions that are
required for technical analysis and comparison. Specifically, all of
the papers listed as references in Veliadis’ Comments include only
wafer information and final device data; there was no information
on the channel width, channel pitch, channel implantation dose or
energy, edge termination guard ring dimensions, or edge termination
implantation dose or energy.
There is nothing dubious in our statement that “The R
SP-ON
values of 1.75 mΩ · cm
2
at V
GS
= 3 V and 2.0 mΩ · cm
2
at V
GS
=
2.5 V are the lowest among all 1500-V-class normally-on SiC FETs
reported to date.” The lowest R
SP-ON
reported by Veliadis is
2.1 mΩ · cm
2
, which is not measured at V
GS
= 2.5 V but at V
GS
=
3.0 V, as clearly shown in his paper [1]. The R
SP-ON
values that were
clearly reported and stated as measured at V
GS
= 2.5 V by Veliadis
include the following: 5.6 [7], [8], 5.3 [4], and 5.5 mΩ · cm
2
[5].
Following are more specific responses to each of his comments.
1) In his Comments, Veliadis cited his papers, i.e., his references
[2]–[4], as sources that reported the fabrication of VJFETs
by stepper photolithography, instead of e-beam lithography.
However, none of these three papers, which are cited here as
[4], [5], [7], and [8], mentioned the lithographic technique used
in the fabrication of the reported VJFETs.
2) In his Comments, Veliadis disagrees with our statement that the
vertical channel of a static induction transistor (SIT) does not
have a highly uniform channel width and presented histograms
Manuscript received June 10, 2009; revised August 23, 2010; accepted
September 7, 2010. Date of publication October 21, 2010; date of current
version November 19, 2010. The review of this paper was arranged by Editor
M. Anwar.
Y. Li is with the Elecronic Devices Institute, Nanjing 210000, China.
P. Alexandrov is with United Silicon Carbide, Inc., Monmouth Junction,
NJ 08852 USA.
J. H. Zhao is with SiCLAB, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA
(e-mail: jzhaoece@gmail.com; jzhao@ece.rutgers.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TED.2010.2079190
0018-9383/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE