A transistor with favorable electrical characteristics, a transistor with stable electrical characteristics, or a highly integrated semiconductor device is provided. In a top-gate transistor in which an oxide semiconductor is used for a semiconductor layer where a channel is formed, elements are introduced to the semiconductor layer in a self-aligned manner after a gate electrode is formed. After that, a side surface of the gate electrode is covered with a structure body. The structure body preferably contains silicon oxide. A first insulating layer is formed to cover the semiconductor layer, the gate electrode, and the structure body. A second insulating layer is formed by a sputtering method over the first insulating layer. Oxygen is introduced to the first insulating layer when the second insulating layer is formed.

A semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof is disclosed in which the semiconductor device includes a p-type anode layer formed by a transition metal acceptor transition, and the manufacturing process is significantly simplified without the breakdown voltage characteristics deteriorating. An inversion advancement region inverted to a p-type by a transition metal acceptor transition, and in which the acceptor transition is advanced by point defect layers, is formed on the upper surface of an n-type drift layer. The inversion advancement region configures a p-type anode layer of a semiconductor device of the invention. The transition metal is, for example, platinum or gold. An n-type semiconductor substrate with a concentration higher than that of the n-type drift layer is adjacent to the lower surface of the n-type drift layer.

A semiconductor device includes a MOSFET including a PN junction diode. A unipolar device is connected in parallel to the MOSFET and has two terminals. A first wire connects the PN junction diode to one of the two terminals of the unipolar device. A second wire connects the one of the two terminals of the unipolar device to an output line, so that the output line is connected to the MOSFET and the unipolar device via the first wire and the second wire. In one embodiment the connection of the first wire to the diode is with its anode, and in another the connection is with the cathode.

A semiconductor device includes a switching device region including an active region having a first conductivity-type emitter region formed on an upper surface side of a first conductivity-type substrate, a second conductivity-type base region formed on an upper surface side of the substrate, a second conductivity-type collector layer formed on a lower surface side of the substrate, and a diode region having a second conductivity-type anode layer formed on the upper surface side of the substrate and a first conductivity-type cathode layer formed on the lower surface side of the substrate, wherein the cathode layer is separated from the active region when planarly viewed, and on an upper surface side of the active region, a second conductivity type high-concentration region having an impurity concentration higher than that of the anode layer is formed.

A Reverse Bipolar Junction Transistor (RBJT) integrated circuit comprises a bipolar transistor and a parallel-connected distributed diode, where the base region is connected neither to the collector electrode nor to the emitter electrode. The bipolar transistor has unusually high emitter-to-base and emitter-to-collector reverse breakdown voltages. In the case of a PNP-type RBJT, an N base region extends into a P epitaxial layer, and a plurality of P++ collector regions extend into the base region. Each collector region is annular, and rings a corresponding diode cathode region. Parts of the epitaxial layer serve as the emitter, and other parts serve as the diode anode. Insulation features separate metal of the collector electrode from the base region, and from P type silicon of the epitaxial layer, so that the diode cathode is separated from the base region. This separation prevents base current leakage and reduces power dissipation during steady state on operation.

A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate; a device region on the semiconductor substrate; a planar edge termination region on the semiconductor substrate to surround the device region; and a passivation film covering the edge termination region, wherein the passivation film includes a semi-insulating film directly contacting the semiconductor substrate.

A semiconductor device is provided, including a semiconductor body having a semiconductor substrate and an epitaxial layer on the substrate, the epitaxial layer being a first conductivity type, and an active area and a termination area adjacent the active area are in the epitaxial layer, the termination area includes a plurality of laterally spaced apart first regions, the first regions being a second conductivity type opposite to the first type, the plurality of first regions enclosing, observed from a top view of the semiconductor device, the active area and one or more second regions, the second regions are in between the plurality of spaced apart first regions, respectively, the one or more second regions extend further into the epitaxial layer than the plurality of first regions, and the one or more second regions include an insulation material for insulating the plurality of first regions from one another.

There is provided a high withstand voltage LDMOS field-effect transistor that enables the compatibility of an increase of its withstand voltage and a decrease of its ON resistance. The high withstand voltage LDMOS is characterizing in including: a first electroconductive type body region formed on a main surface of a semiconductor substrate; a second electroconductive type source region formed on a surface of the body region; a second electroconductive type drift region formed so as to have contact with the body region; a second electroconductive type drain region formed on the drift region; a first electroconductive type buried region having contact with the body region and formed below the drift region; a gate electrode formed above the body region between the source region and the drift region and above the drift region nearer to the source region via a gate insulating film; a first field plate that extends from the gate electrode toward the drain region and that is formed above the drift region via a first insulating film; and a second field plate that has contact with the source region or the gate electrode and that is formed above the first field plate via a second insulating film, in which a distance between the buried region and the drain region is smaller than a distance between the first field plate and the drain region and larger than a distance between the second field plate and the drain region.

An integrated circuit device includes: a substrate including a first surface and a second surface that is opposite to the first surface; and a diode structure including: an upper semiconductor layer disposed on the first surface of the substrate and including a first dopant of a first conductivity type; a lower semiconductor layer disposed on the second surface of the substrate and including a second dopant of a second conductivity type that is different from the first conductivity type; and a first well region provided in a portion of the substrate that is between the upper semiconductor layer and the lower semiconductor layer, wherein the first well region is in contact with the upper semiconductor layer or the lower semiconductor layer.

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device includes a semiconductor substrate and a pair of first well regions formed in the semiconductor substrate, wherein the pair of first well regions have a first conductivity type and are separated by at least one portion of the semiconductor substrate. In addition, the ESD protection device further includes a first doping region formed in a portion of the at least one portion of the semiconductor substrate separating the pair of first well regions, having a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type. Moreover, the ESD protection device further includes a pair of second doping regions respectively formed in one of the first well regions, having the first conductivity type, and a pair of insulating layers respectively formed over a portion of the semiconductor substrate to cover a portion of the first doped region and one of the second doping regions.