Scaling effects in Schottky contacts

This article reports on scaling effects in Schottky contacts on various types of semiconductors, including low resistivity, semi-intrinsic, and deep-level compensated. The investigation was performed using a finite element computation and drift-diffusion transport model. In low resistivity semiconductors, the currents scale with contact area as long as thermionic emission process dominates the current transport, with limited impact of velocity saturation effect. In high resistivity semiconductors, the scaling is much more complex due to the considerable impact of minority carrier contribution. In several cases, the currents scale with contact radius, rather than with area, due to corresponding electric field variations. In some compensated materials, the impact of velocity saturation was shown to boost the current, due to carrier accumulation and corresponding space charge variations.