Over 50 mA current in interdigitated diamond field effect transistor

TL;DR

This paper reports the development of a bulk diamond field-effect transistor with over 50 mA current, achieved through an interdigitated architecture and homogeneous growth, representing the highest current for this device type.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel interdigitated architecture for bulk diamond FETs, significantly increasing current capacity and demonstrating high-temperature operation with homogeneous large-area diamond layers.

Findings

Achieved over 50 mA current at 450 K in a bulk diamond FET.

Demonstrated high-temperature operation with stable characteristics.

Established that access resistance dominates over channel resistance at high temperatures.

Abstract

This letter presents the bulk diamond field-effect transistor (FET) with the highest current value reported at this moment. The goal was to drastically increase the current of this type of device by increasing the total gate width thanks to an interdigitated architecture and homogeneous growth properties. We report the results obtained by fabricating and characterizing an interdigitated junction FET (JFET). The device develops a total gate width of 14.7 mm, with 24 paralleled fingers and a current higher than 50 mA at VDS = -15 V, VGS = 0 V, at 450 K and under illumination which is the highest value reported for a bulk diamond FET. Its specific ON-resistance and threshold voltage are respectively 608 m$\Omega$.cm${}^2$, 50 V. From Transfer length method (TLM) measurements we extract a resistivity of 3.6 m$\Omega$.cm for a heavily boron-doped (p++)-diamond layer and 1.52 $\Omega$.cm for a 2.1017 cm-3 p-doped diamond layer at 450 K. We measured the drain current versus gate voltage characteristics at high temperature showing that it is no longer the conduction channel resistance but the device access resistance that is predominant. This study indicates that it is possible to drastically improve the ON-state of FETs by using an interdigitated architecture, while using homogeneous large size diamond layers grown by CVD.