Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar 9;16(6):2202.
doi: 10.3390/ma16062202.

Radiation Response of Large-Area 4H-SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes

Robert Bernat  1 , Tihomir Knežević  1 , Vladimir Radulović  2 , Luka Snoj  2 , Takahiro Makino  3 , Takeshi Ohshima  3 , Ivana Capan  1
Affiliations

Radiation Response of Large-Area 4H-SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes

Robert Bernat et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

We report on the effects of large-area 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes on the radiation response to ionizing particles. Two different diode areas were compared: 1 mm × 1 mm and 5 mm × 5 mm. 6LiF and 10B4C films, which were placed on top of the diodes, were used as thermal neutron converters. We achieved a thermal neutron efficiency of 5.02% with a 6LiF thermal neutron converter, which is one of the highest efficiencies reported to date. In addition, a temperature-dependent radiation response to alpha particles was presented. Neutron irradiations were performed in a JSI TRIGA dry chamber and an Am-241 wide-area alpha source was used for testing the alpha response of the 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes.

Keywords: alpha particles; neutron radiation; nuclear reactor; radiation detector; silicon carbide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
4H-SiC detectors on chip carriers with different active surface areas: (left) 1 mm × 1 mm and (right) 5 mm × 5 mm.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Block diagram of the detector system used in this study.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Temperature-dependent current voltage (I-V) measurement of 4H-SiC detector with active surface area of 5 mm × 5 mm. Measurements were performed in a vacuum in the temperature range from 200 K to 390 K.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Capacitance current voltage (I-V) measurement of 4H-SiC detector with active surface area of 5 mm × 5 mm. Measurements were performed in a vacuum at 300 K.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Responses of 4H-SiC detectors with different active surface areas of 1 mm × 1 mm and 5 mm × 5 mm to Am-241 alpha particles. We observed an excellent correlation of the different detector size responses to the Am-241 alpha particle energy maxima of 5486 keV (channel 1651 for 1 mm × 1 mm and channel 1648 for 5 mm × 5 mm SBDs).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Response of 4H-SiC detector with active surface area of 5 mm × 5 mm to Am-241 alpha particles in a vacuum at different temperatures.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Comparison of the responses of 4H-SiC SBD detectors with different active areas (1 mm × 1 mm and 5 mm × 5 mm) equipped with a 26.54 µm thick 6LiF thermal neutron converter layer to the neutron field of a JSI TRIGA reactor at 250 kW.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Comparison of the responses of 4H-SiC SBD detectors with different active areas (1 mm × 1 mm and 5 mm × 5 mm) equipped with a 1.40 µm thick 10B4C thermal neutron converter layer with different thicknesses to the neutron field of a JSI TRIGA reactor at 250 kW.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bernat R., Bakrač L., Radulović V., Snoj L., Makino T., Ohshima T., Pastuović Ž., Capan I. 4H-SiC Schottky Barrier Diodes for Efficient Thermal Neutron Detection. Materials. 2021;14:5105. doi: 10.3390/ma14175105. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kimoto T., Cooper J.A. Fundamentals of Silicon Carbide Technology. John Wiley & Sons; Hoboken, NJ, USA: 2014.
    1. Radulović V., Yamazaki Y., Pastuović Ž., Sarbutt A., Ambrožič K., Bernat R., Ereš Z., Coutinho J., Ohshima T., Capan I., et al. Silicon carbide neutron detector testing at the JSI TRIGA reactor for enhanced border and port security. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A Accel. Spectrometers Detect. Assoc. Equip. 2020;972:164122. doi: 10.1016/j.nima.2020.164122. - DOI
    1. Coutinho J., Torres V.J., Capan I., Brodar T., Ereš Z., Bernat R., Radulović V., Ambrožič K., Snoj L., Pastuović Z., et al. Silicon carbide diodes for neutron detection. Nucl. Inst. Methods Phys. Res. A. 2020;986:164793. doi: 10.1016/j.nima.2020.164793. - DOI
    1. Wright N., Horsfall A.B. SiC sensors: A review. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 2007;40:6345–6354. doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/40/20/S17. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources