A Study of Dual Barrier Pt/Ir/n‐GaN Schottky Barrier Diode for High Voltage and High Temperature Applications

The simulation‐based study is conducted on GaN Schottky barrier diode (SBD) with mesa‐trench topology using Pt/Ir, Ni/Mo, Pt/Mo and Ni/TiN as dual Schottky contacts. A detailed analysis of the forward and reverse characteristics, self‐heating effect at temperatures 300, 360 and 420 K has been carried out to assess the performance of the proposed Schottky dual barrier‐mesa trench diode (SDB‐MTD). The impact of mesa‐trench widths in SDB‐MTD is examined for various combinations such as 2–2 µm, 4–2 µm, 2–4 µm, 3–4 µm and 4–4 µm using the Silvaco TCAD tool. Finally, the optimised design of the diode is compared with that of the conventional planar GaN SBD with low and high barrier height Schottky contacts in terms of the forward and reverse I–V characteristics. The optimised design of the proposed device has achieved a turn‐On voltage of 1.26 V and the breakdown voltage of 1190 V, which shows a significant improvement in performance with respect to the planar structure. Among the considered metal combinations, Pt/Ir/n‐GaN SBD has shown a low reverse saturation current at elevated temperature. The obtained results provide valuable insight into Schottky contact engineering and behaviour of the device at higher temperatures, suitable for high voltage and high‐temperature power electronics applications.