Patent ID: 7553734

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a semiconductor layer having a layer thickness, T c , wherein said semiconductor layer has a doping profile through said layer thickness that is substantially uniform across said semiconductor layer; forming a device region in said semiconductor layer by forming; an active region having a substantially uniform active-region breakdown voltage, V ba ; and an edge region having an edge-region width and an edge-region breakdown voltage, V be , wherein said edge-region width is in the range of substantially 0.5T c to substantially 3T c , and wherein V be is greater than or equal to 0.9V ba , and wherein said device region is formed by operations comprising; (i) providing a first mask-layer opening on said semiconductor layer, wherein said first mask-layer opening has a first width; (ii) doping said semiconductor layer with a first dopant through said first mask-layer opening; (iii) providing a second mask-layer opening on said semiconductor layer, wherein said second mask-layer opening has a second width that defines said active region, and wherein said active region is substantially equal to said second width, and wherein second width is smaller than said first width by an amount in the range of substantially 0.5Tc to substantially 4Tc; and (iv) doping said semiconductor layer with a second dopant through said second mask-layer opening; wherein said active region and said edge region have substantially the same doping level, and wherein the active region and the edge region collectively define the device region, and further wherein the active region and the edge region are contiguous.