A semiconductor device includes a drift layer 20 of a first conductivity type, a base layer 30 of a second conductivity type that is disposed on the drift layer 20 and is connected to a source electrode 90, and a column layer 50 of a second conductivity type that is connected to the source electrode 90 and penetrates the base layer 30 to extend into the drift layer 20.

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor body having a semiconductor body material with a dopant diffusion coefficient that is smaller than the corresponding dopant diffusion coefficient of silicon, at least one first semiconductor region doped with dopants of a first conductivity type and having a columnar shape that extends into the semiconductor body along an extension direction, wherein a respective width of the at least one first semiconductor region continuously increases along the extension direction; and at least one second semiconductor region included in the semiconductor body. The at least one second semiconductor region is arranged adjacent to the at least one first semiconductor region, and is doped with dopants of a second conductivity type complementary to the first conductivity type.

A semiconductor wafer processing system for processing a semiconductor wafer is presented. The semiconductor wafer processing system comprises: a trench production apparatus configured to produce trenches in the semiconductor wafer, the trenches being arranged next to each other along a first lateral direction (X); a trench filling apparatus configured to epitaxially fill the trenches with a doped semiconductor material; and a controller operatively coupled to at least one of the trench production apparatus and the trench filling apparatus, wherein the controller is configured to control at least one of the trench production apparatus and the trench filling apparatus in dependence of a parameter, the parameter being indicative of at least one of a variation of dopant concentrations of the doped semiconductor material along the first lateral direction (X) that is to be expected when carrying out the epitaxially filling and a deviation of an expected average of the dopant concentrations from a predetermined nominal value.

A MOSFET having a stacked-gate super-junction design and novel termination structure. At least some illustrative embodiments of the device include a conductive (highly-doped with dopants of a first conductivity type) substrate with a lightly-doped epitaxial layer. The volume of the epitaxial layer is substantially filled with a charge compensation structure having vertical trenches forming intermediate mesas. The mesas are moderately doped via the trench sidewalls to have a second conductivity type, while the mesa tops are heavily-doped to have the first conductivity type. Sidewall layers are provided in the vertical trenches, the sidewall layers being a moderately-doped semiconductor of the first conductivity type. The shoulders of the sidewall layers are recessed below the mesa top to receive an overlying gate for controlling a channel between the mesa top and the sidewall layer. The mesa tops are coupled to a source electrode, while a drain electrode is provided on the back side of the substrate.

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor body with transistor cells arranged in an active area and absent in an edge area between the active area and a side surface. A field dielectric adjoins a first surface of the semiconductor body and separates, in the edge area, a conductive structure connected to gate electrodes of the transistor cells from the semiconductor body. The field dielectric includes a transition from a first vertical extension to a second, greater vertical extension. The transition is in the vertical projection of a non-depletable extension zone in the semiconductor body, wherein the non-depletable extension zone has a conductivity type of body/anode zones of the transistor cells and is electrically connected to at least one of the body/anode zones.

Various improvements in vertical transistors, such as IGBTs, are disclosed. The improvements include forming periodic highly-doped p-type emitter dots in the top surface region of a growth substrate, followed by growing the various transistor layers, followed by grounding down the bottom surface of the substrate, followed by a wet etch of the bottom surface to expose the heavily doped p+ layer. A metal contact is then formed over the p+ layer. In another improvement, edge termination structures utilize p-dopants implanted in trenches to create deep p-regions for shaping the electric field, and shallow p-regions between the trenches for rapidly removing holes after turn-off. In another improvement, a dual buffer layer using an n-layer and distributed n+ regions improves breakdown voltage and saturation voltage. In another improvement, p-zones of different concentrations in a termination structure are formed by varying pitches of trenches. In another improvement, beveled saw streets increase breakdown voltage.

A lateral superjunction MOSFET device includes multiple transistor cells connected to a lateral superjunction structure, each transistor cell including a conductive gate finger, a source region finger, a body contact region finger and a drain region finger arranged laterally within each transistor cell. Each of the drain region fingers, the source region fingers and the body contact region fingers is a doped region finger having a termination region at an end of the doped region finger. The lateral superjunction MOSFET device further includes a termination structure formed in the termination region of each doped region finger and including one or more termination columns having the same conductivity type as the doped region finger and positioned near the end of the doped region finger. The one or more termination columns extend through the lateral superjunction structure and are electrically unbiased.

In one embodiment, a power MOSFET vertically conducts current. A bottom electrode may be connected to a positive voltage, and a top electrode may be connected to a low voltage, such as a load connected to ground. A gate and/or a field plate, such as polysilicon, is within a trench. The trench has a tapered oxide layer insulating the polysilicon from the silicon walls. The oxide is much thicker near the bottom of the trench than near the top to increase the breakdown voltage. The tapered oxide is formed by implanting nitrogen into the trench walls to form a tapered nitrogen dopant concentration. This forms a tapered silicon nitride layer after an anneal. The tapered silicon nitride variably inhibits oxide growth in a subsequent oxidation step.

A semiconductor device with a high radiation tolerance is provided. A semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor substrate, a first body region and a second body region provided on a front surface side of the semiconductor substrate, a neck portion provided between the first body region and the second body region, a first source region formed within the first body region and a second source region formed within the second body region, a first gate electrode provided to face the first body region between the first source region and the neck portion, a second gate electrode provided to face the second body region between the second source region and the neck portion, and an insulating film continuously provided between the first gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate, between the second gate electrode and the semiconductor substrate, and on the front surface side of the neck portion, is provided.

An integrated circuit chip includes a bimodal power N-P-Laterally Diffused Metal Oxide Semiconductor (LDMOS) device having an N-gate coupled to receive an input signal and a level shifter coupled to receive the input signal and to provide a control signal to a P-gate driver of the N-P-LDMOS device. A method of operating an N-P-LDMOS power device is also disclosed.