HIGH-TEMPERATURE STABILITY OF CHEMICALLY VAPOR-DEPOSITED DIAMOND DIODES

The wide band gap of diamond (5.5 eV) suggests that high temperature e lectronic device operation will be achievable. The emergence of polycr ystalline thin film diamond, grown by chemical vapour deposition metho ds, has made this prospect commercially interesting. Among the primary requirements for the realization of such a device are ohmic and Schot tky contacts which display longterm stability at elevated temperatures . In this paper a widely used ohmic metallization scheme, Ti-Au, is co ntrasted with a trilevel contact, Ti-Ag-Au. Given the morphology and d oping level of the diamond film used, Ti-Ag-Au coupled with an Al Scho ttky barrier offers stable diode characteristics following operation a t 400 degrees C.