Diode and semiconductor device having such a diode

Abstract: A diode in which a first semiconductor region of one conductivity type and a second semiconductor region of a conductivity type opposite to that of the first semiconductor region are joined through an intrinsic semiconductor region or a low concentration impurity semiconductor region. The diode has a control electrode provided over the intrinsic semiconductor region or the low concentration impurity semiconductor region through an insulative film.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The invention relates to a diode and a semiconductor device having such a diode and, more particularly, to a diode which is suitably used in a semiconductor integrated circuit or the like and to a semiconductor device having such a diode. Related Background Art Generally, a diode used in an electronic circuit device is formed by a PN junction of semiconductors and is used as various circuit constructing devices by using a rectifying characteristic, a breakdown voltage characteristic, and the like. In such a diode, an internal electric field distribution is determined by an impurity profile of the PN junction and characteristics of the breakdown voltage and the like are decided by the internal electric field distribution. Therefore, in general, by controlling the impurity profile of the PN junction, desired electrical characteristics are obtained. However, various characteristics are required for a diode. When only the impurity profile of the PN junction is controlled, it is difficult to form a diode having the required characteristics. For instance, it is possible to form a diode having a low capacity and a high processing speed due to a high operating frequency by controlling the impurity profile of the PN junction. It is also possible to form a diode such as an ordinary Zener diode which is used as a device for a constant voltage source circuit by using the breakdown voltage as a reference. There is a method of reducing a capacity of the diode in order to accomplish a high-speed operating frequency. Practically speaking, a low concentration layer is sandwiched between high concentration layers of PN, thereby substantially widening a depletion layer and realizing a field relaxation. According to the above method, however, although a low capacity can be realized, a withstanding voltage rises, so that such a diode cannot be used as a low constant voltage source. On the other hand, even in the case where a diode is used in a limited application field such as diode for a high-speed operating frequency or diode for a constant voltage, in order to form diodes for a plurality of application fields in the same chip, it is necessary to change an impurity profile of the PN junction every diode. Therefore, manufacturing steps become very complicated and it is difficult to suppress a variation of processing conditions. As mentioned above, when only the impurity profile of the PN junction is controlled, it is difficult to manufacture a diode having both of the characteristics (diode which has a high operating speed and is used as a constant voltage source). It should be noted that FR-A-2490874 is concerned with improving the current handling capabilities of transistors having non-saturated current characteristics such as static induction transistors and proposes a transistor structure having n + and p + conductivity type first and second semiconductor regions separated by an n conductivity type third or active semiconductor region carrying an insulated gate electrode. The active region has a thickness less than π/2 times the Debye length to ensure that the number of majority carriers is greater than the number of minority carriers. To provide a transistor with a non-saturating characteristic, a gate voltage greater than the flat band voltage and an anode voltage greater than the gate voltage are applied so that the anode junction becomes forward-biased, resulting in the injection of minority carriers (holes) into the active region at the same time as majority carriers are injected from the cathode. To achieve a saturating characteristic, negative gate and anode voltages are applied with the gate voltage more negative than the anode voltage so that conduction occurs by way of a hole current. US-A-4037140 describes a protection circuit for insulating gate field effect transistors in which first and second gate control diodes are connected between the coupled gates and respective sources of the n and p channel transistors of a complementary MOS inverter. Each gate control diode has n + and p + regions separated by an n - region and an insulated gate overlying the n - region coupled to the cathode of the diode. A PN junction diode is coupled between the sources of the n and p channel transistors. The PN junction diode is provided to ensure that the gate controlled diodes conduct only in the forward direction so allowing the gate controlled diodes to be made small and to be optimised for conduction in the forward direction. The English language abstract from Patent Abstracts of Japan, Volume 9, Number 219 (M410) for JP-A-60-80279 describes an insulated gate type transistor in which a semi-insulating field cut-off layer is provided between a substrate insulating layer and an n-active region to prevent leakage currents so that current flow between the p + anode an n + cathode regions of the transistor is controlled by the voltage applied to the insulated gate control electrode on the active region. JP-A-57-184251 corresponding to the preamble of claim 1 discloses a semiconductor element having first and second highly doped semiconductor regions of opposite conductivity types formed within a relatively lowly doped semiconductor body of one conductivity type. An insulated gate control electrode extends over the semiconductor body between the first and second regions to enable control of oscillation frequency, negative resistance value, avalanche breakdown voltage, Zener voltage, punch-through and so on at the PN junction formed between the semiconductor body and one of the first and second regions. JP-A-58096766 describes a semiconductor device having first and second highly doped semiconductor regions of opposite conductivity type formed within a relatively lowly doped semiconductor body of one conductivity type. An insulated gate control electrode extends over the semiconductor body between the first and second regions. The extent of a depletion region within the semiconductor body is controlled by a voltage applied to the insulated gate control electrode. JP-A-60-245168 describes a tunnel transistor in which opposed insulated gate electrodes overly a non-degenerate region of one conductivity type separating a non-degenerate more highly doped region of the same conductivity type from a degenerate region of the opposite conductivity type. The control electrodes control a tunnel barrier between the degenerate region of the opposite conductivity type and the non-degenerate region. This enables a tunnel transistor to be provided in which the base region is relatively lowly doped so reducing the possibility of scattering in the base region and enabling high speed operation. According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a diode in accordance with claim 1. According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a semiconductor device including a diode in accordance with the first aspect. A diode embodying the invention has an excellent operating frequency characteristic and an excellent characteristic such that the diode can be used for a constant voltage circuit and also a semiconductor device having such a diode is provided. A diode embodying the invention is such that by using the diode in an electronic circuit device or a semiconductor device in which diodes for a plurality of application fields are formed in the same chip, a plurality of characteristics are obtained by a single diode, so that the number of diodes can be reduced and a circuit design can be simplified and the costs can be reduced. A diode embodying the invention has a control electrode in which by floating the control electrode or by changing a potential of the control electrode, an internal electric field distribution of the diode is controlled and characteristics of the diode can be changed and also a semiconductor device having such a diode is provided. An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a schematic vertical sectional diagram of a diode included for the purposes of illustration; Figs. 2 to 4 are schematic vertical sectional diagrams for explaining manufacturing steps of the diode shown in Fig. 1, respectively; Figs. 5A to 5C are explanatory diagrams for explaining an operating principle of the diode; Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view for explaining a diode embodying to the invention. A semiconductor diode has a control electrode and characteristics of the diode can be changed by controlling an internal electric field distribution by floating the control electrode or by changing a potential of the control electrode. A construction of the diode is schematically shown in Fig. 5A. That is, in the diode, a PN junction is not merely formed but an intrinsic or low concentration impurity semiconductor region (intrinsic semiconductor region in the diagram) 16 is formed between a first semiconductor region of one conductivity type (p + type region in the diagram) 14 and a second semiconductor region of a conductivity type (n + type region in the diagram) 15 opposite to the conductivity type of the first semiconductor region 14, and a control electrode 18 is provided for the intrinsic or low concentration impurity semiconductor region 16. Each of the first and second semiconductor regions 14 and 15 contains a material to control the conductivity type at a high concentration. A concentration of the material is set to a value which is equal to or larger than a concentration such as to obtain an ohmic contact between the electrode and the semiconductor region which are formed. Generally, a concentration of 10 19 cm -3 or more is preferable. A concentration of the material which is contained in the semiconductor region 16 and controls the conductivity type is set to either one of the case where none of the material to control the conductivity type is contained, the case where one of the material which controls the conductivity type to the p type and the material which controls it to the n type is contained, and the case where both of the material which controls the conductivity type to the p type and the material which controls it to the n type are contained and there is no difference or a small difference between the concentrations of those materials. Atoms selected from the atoms which belong to the III and V groups of the periodic table are used as materials to control the conductivity type. For instance, B, Ga, P, As, etc. are preferably selected. If the diode is constructed as mentioned above, by floating the control electrode 18 or by changing a potential of the control electrode 18, an internal electric field distribution of the diode is controlled and the characteristics of the diode can be changed. A plurality of characteristics can be derived using a single diode structure in an electronic circuit device or a semiconductor device in which diodes for a plurality of application fields are formed in the same chip. Therefore, the number of diodes can be reduced, the circuit design can be simplified, and the costs can be reduced. Moreover, according to the manufacturing processes , the diode can be manufactured by ordinary MOS transistor manufacturing processes, so that an integrated circuit device can be manufactured without increasing the number of manufacturing processes which is also extremely advantageous in terms of the manufacturing costs. By forming the diode onto what is called an SOI substrate, a potential of the whole film can be easily controlled by the control electrode, a depletion region is small, a dark current can be further reduced, and a parasitic capacity of the device can be further decreased. Consequently, a higher withstanding voltage can be controlled and a high operating speed of the device can be realized (high frequency response speed can be improved). In a region from an n + /p + junction diode to an n + /i/p + junction diode, the withstanding voltage can be changed in accordance with a potential which is applied to the control electrode. Therefore, one diode can be individually used as one of a plurality of kinds of diodes or a diode having one structure can be used in correspondence to one of a plurality of diodes. Fig. 1 is a schematic vertical sectionalview of a diode which is included for the purposes of illustration only. In the diagram, reference numeral 1 denotes an n type Si (100) substrate having a specific resistance of 100 Ω·cm; 2 a buried SiO 2 layer; 4 a p type high concentration impurity region (region containing impurities which can control the conductivity type to a p-type at a high concentration); 5 an n type high concentration impurity region (region containing impurities which can control the conductivity type to an n type at a high concentration); 6 an n type low concentration impurity region; 7 an oxide film; 8 an n + polysilicon electrode serving as a control electrode; and 9 an aluminum electrode. Manufacturing steps of the above diode will be first described with reference to Figs. 2 to 4. Figs. 2 to 4 are schematic vertical sectional views for explaining the manufacturing steps of the diode shown in Fig. 1, respectively. First, as shown in Fig. 2, the n type Si (100) substrate having the specific resistance of 100 Ω·cm is heated to a temperature of 600 °C and oxygen ions 12 of a dose amount of 1.8 x 10 18 /cm 2 are implanted into the substrate at 200 keV. After that, the substrate is annealed at 1300 °C for six hours. Thus, an n type monocrystalline layer 3 having a thickness of 2200 Å (1 Å = 0.1 nm) is formed on the buried SiO 2 layer 2 having a thickness of 3700 Å. The SIMOX (separation by Implantation of Oxygen) substrate is wet-oxidized under the conditions of 1000 °C and 30 minutes. After that, the oxide film on the surface is eliminated by using hydrofluoric acid, thereby reducing the thickness of the n type monocrystalline layer 3 to about 1000 Å. A reason why the whole region of the n type monocrystalline layer 3 on the substrate is because with respect to an ultrathin film SOI device (CMOS transistor here) which is simultaneously formed on the same substrate as well, by making a thickness of the semiconductor layer thinner than the maximum thickness of the depletion layer, a mobility can be increased by a vertical field relaxation. Then, as shown in Fig. 3, after the semiconductor layer was etched to separate the device, the oxide film 7 having a thickness of 500 Å is formed by a thermal oxidation, thereby forming the n + polysilicon electrode 8 having a width of 6 µm onto the oxide film 7. At this time, with respect to the SOI type CMOS transistor (not shown) which is simultaneously formed on the same substrate as well, the device separation is executed by etching and a gate oxide film and a gate electrode are formed. After that, phosphorus (P) ions 13 are implanted through a resist mask 11 into a part of the n type monocrystalline layer 3 at a concentration of 1 x 10 15 cm -2 and at 60 kev, thereby forming the n type high concentration impurity region 5. At this time, impurities are also simultaneously implanted to form a source region and a drain region of an NMOS transistor of the CMOS transistor. As shown in Fig. 4, boron (B) ions 17 are subsequently implanted through a resist mask 31 into a region different from the foregoing region of the n type monocrystalline layer 3 at a concentration of 1 x 10 15 cm -2 and at 20 keV, thereby forming the p type high concentration impurity region 4. At this time, impurities are also simultaneously implanted to form a source region and a drain region of PMOS transistor of the CMOS transistor. Annealing is executed to activate the high concentration impurity regions 4 and 5, thereby forming a high concentration impurity layer of about 10 20 cm -3 . At this time, annealing is also simultaneously executed to activate the impurities in the source and drain regions of the NMOS transistor and the PMOS transistor. By ohmic connecting the aluminum electrodes 9 to the high concentration impurity regions 4 and 5, the diode as shown in Fig. 1 is formed. As shown in Fig. 1, the low concentration impurity region 6 is externally diffused by annealing at a high temperature of 1300 °C for six hours and is set to a concentration of about 10 13 cm -3 and is in a state which is almost near the intrinsic state as compared with the first substrate concentration. The low concentration impurity region 6 is floating with regard to the potential. The operation principle of the above diode will now be described with reference to Figs. 5A to 5C. In Fig. 5A, in the case where the p + type region 14 is connected to the ground potential of 0 V and a predetermined voltage is applied to the n + type region 15, the potential smoothly changes in the low concentration region as shown by a line 20 in Fig. 5B so long as the control electrode 18 is floating. This is because the depletion layer spreads into the whole low concentration impurity region having a width of 6 µm and a uniform electric field is applied as shown by a line 23 in Fig. 5C. In such a state, the diode has a very low capacity, a high response speed, and a high anti-bias withstanding voltage of 50 V or higher. On the other hand, when a voltage of a threshold level or higher is applied to the control electrode 18, the potential of the low concentration impurity region 16 decreases as a whole because a film thickness of the semiconductor layer is thin. In a strongly inverted (i.e., due to a voltage applied by the control electrode 18, the low impurity concentration region 16 becomes an n type like area portion in the low impurity concentration region 16, as shown by a broken line 21 in Fig. 5B, the potential of the region 16 approaches the potential of the n type high concentration impurity region 15. Thus, an inversely biased potential suddenly changes at a boundary between the p type high concentration impurity region 14 and the low concentration impurity region 16 as shown by a broken line 22 in Fig. 5B. Therefore, as shown by a broken line 24 in Fig. 5C, a high field concentration occurs at a boundary between the p type high concentration impurity region 14 and the low concentration impurity region 16 and a breakdown voltage suddenly drops. In the embodiment, the breakdown voltage is equal to about 5.5 V and the diode can be used as a Zener diode for a constant voltage. Although the operation has been described on the assumption that the control electrode 18 is floating for simplicity of explanation, even if the potential is equal to 0 V, a band profile is merely slightly changed and there is no essential difference. As described above, the diode characteristics can be continuously changed by a voltage which is applied to the control electrode. Fig. 6 is a schematic vertical sectional view of a diode embodying the invention. In the embodiment, a lower control electrode 39 is formed together with an upper control electrode 38, thereby forming a double-gate structure. In the diagram, reference numeral 34 denotes a p type high concentration impurity region of boron having a concentration of 10 20 cm -3 ; 36 an n type low concentration impurity region of phosphorus having a concentration of 10 14 cm -3 ; 35 an n type high concentration impurity region of phosphorus having a concentration of 10 20 cm -3 ; 32 an insulative substrate; and 33 and 37 insulative films each having a thickness of 300 Å. A thickness of each of the impurity regions is set to 500 Å. By forming such a very thin low concentration impurity region and by forming a double-gate electrode structure, a potential of the low concentration impurity region can be uniformly controlled for the entire semiconductor layer and the stability of the characteristics can be improved.

Claims: A diode comprising: a semiconductor layer comprising a first semiconductor region (34) having a high concentration of impurities of a first conductivity type, a second semiconductor region (35) having a high concentration of impurities of a second conductivity type, and a third semiconductor region (36) which is intrinsic or has a lower impurity concentration than the first or second semiconductor regions, the third semiconductor region being arranged between said first and second semiconductor regions so as to join the first and the second semiconductor regions; and a control electrode (38) provided on an insulating layer (37) on the third semiconductor region so as to extend over the whole length of the third semiconductor region (36) between the first and second semiconductor regions (34 and 35), characterised in that the semiconductor layer is provided on an insulating substrate (32) and a further control electrode (39) is provided between the insulating substrate (32) and the semiconductor layer with the further control electrode (39) being separated from the semiconductor layer by an insulating layer (33) and being arranged to extend along the whole length of the third semiconductor region (36) between the first and second semiconductor regions (34 and 35), thereby enabling the potential of the third semiconductor region to be uniformly controlled for the entire semiconductor layer and in that the semiconductor layer has a thickness not greater than 100nm, the first and second semiconductor regions have a doping concentration not less than 10 19 cm -3 and the third semiconductor region has a doping concentration not greater than 10 14 cm -3 so that, during operation, when no or zero volts are applied to the control electrodes, the depletion region extends throughout the thickness of the semiconductor layer before reaching its maximum extent. A diode according to claim 1, wherein the first and second semiconductor regions (34 and 35) contain impurities which control the conductivity type at a concentration of 1 x 10 20 cm -3 . A diode according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the impurities which control the conductivity type are selected from the III and V groups of the periodic table. A diode according to claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein said semiconductor layer is a monocrystalline silicon layer. A diode according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the semiconductor layer has a thickness of 50nm. A diode according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the third semiconductor region is doped with impurities to a concentration of 10 14 cm -3 . A diode according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the insulating layers (33 and 37) have a thickness of 30nm. A semiconductor device including a diode according to any one of the preceding claims.

Inventors: KOIZUMI TORU, MIZUTANI HIDEMASA, KOIZUMI, TORU, MIZUTANI, HIDEMASA, KOIZUMI, TORU, C/O CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, MIZUTANI, HIDEMASA, C/O CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Applicants: CANON KK, CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1991
Main classification: H01L29
IPC codes: H01L29, H01L27