Ohmic Contact Engineering in Silicon Carbide Devices

Ohmic contacts to silicon carbide (SiC) are critical enablers for high-power and high-temperature electronics. Unlike conventional silicon, SiC’s wide bandgap and chemical inertness demand specialised metallisation schemes and thermal treatments to achieve low-resistance, stable interfaces. Contact engineering in SiC typically involves the deposition of refractory metals or silicides, optimisation of dopant concentration near the surface through ion implantation or epitaxial growth, and post-deposition annealing to promote interfacial reactions. The resulting metal–semiconductor junction must support linear current–voltage characteristics with minimal specific contact resistance, while resisting degradation under elevated operating temperatures. Recent advances have focused on tailoring interfacial phases, controlling silicide orientation, introducing diffusion barriers and exploring novel metallisation stacks to balance ease of fabrication with long-term stability. As SiC devices find increasing use in electric vehicles, renewable energy inverters and aerospace systems, precise control of ohmic contact properties remains a central challenge for both academic research and industrial implementation.

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Ohmic Contact Engineering in Silicon Carbide Devices publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in ohmic contact engineering in silicon carbide devices across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Ohmic contact: A metal–semiconductor interface exhibiting linear current–voltage behaviour with negligible rectification, enabling efficient charge injection.

Specific contact resistance: The resistance per unit area of an interface, critical for quantifying and comparing contact performance.

Silicide: A compound formed between silicon and a metal, often used to reduce contact resistance and improve thermal stability.

Transfer length method: A measurement technique for extracting specific contact resistance and sheet resistance from patterned test structures.

4H-SiC: A hexagonal polytype of silicon carbide widely used in power electronics due to favourable electron mobility and breakdown field.

References

1. High temperature evolution of interfacial metal film bonding two 4H-SiC substrates. Applied Surface Science (2025).
2. Self-aligned contacts to ion implanted S/D regions in 4H-SiC. Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing (2023).
3. Ni‐Based Ohmic Contacts to n‐Type 4H‐SiC: The Formation Mechanism and Thermal Stability. Advances in Condensed Matter Physics (2016).