High energy proton irradiation effects on SiC Schottky rectifiers

4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers with dielectric overlap edge termination were exposed to 40 MeV protons at fluences from 5x107-5x109 cm-2. The reverse breakdown voltage decreased from ∼500 V in unirradiated devices to ∼-450 V after the highest proton dose. The reverse leakage current at -250 V was approximately doubled under these conditions. The forward current at -2 V decreased by ∼1% (fluence of 5x107 cm-2) to ∼42% (fluence of 5x109 cm-2), while the current at lower biases was increased due to the introduction of defect centers. The ideality factor, on-state resistance, and forward turn-on voltage showed modest increases for fluences of ≤5x108 cm-2, but were more strongly affected (increase of 40%-75%) at the highest dose employed