Innovative localized lifetime control in high-speed IGBTs

An innovative method to control carrier lifetime locally and efficiently in Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) is presented. It is based on the formation of void layers by low-energy and high-dose He implants and annealing. Voids introduce two well-defined midgap trap levels in silicon. HFIELDS simulations demonstrate the increase of surface hole concentration when a well localized recombination region is introduced in the buffer layer. High-speed IGBTs were fabricated both with voids in the buffer layer or with unlocalized recombination centres. Devices with localized bandgap centres show a lower on-resistance with a fast turn-off behavior.