A semiconductor device including a semiconductor substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface is provided. In a depth direction connecting the upper and lower surfaces of the semiconductor substrate, a donor concentration distribution includes a first donor concentration peak at a first depth, a second donor concentration peak at a second depth between the first donor concentration peak and the upper surface, a flat region between the first donor concentration peak and the second donor concentration peak, and a plurality of donor concentration peaks between the first donor concentration peak and the lower surface. The second donor concentration peak has a lower concentration than the first donor concentration peak. The donor concentration distribution in the flat region is substantially flat. The thickness of the flat region in the depth direction is 10% or more of the thickness of the semiconductor substrate.

Provided is a semiconductor device including: a semiconductor substrate including an active portion in which transistor portions and diode portions are alternately provided and provided with a plurality of trench portions extending in an extending direction of the transistor portion and the diode portion; an emitter electrode provided above a front surface of the semiconductor substrate; and a protective film of polyimide provided on an upper surface of the emitter electrode, wherein the diode portion includes a lifetime control region including a lifetime killer irradiated from a front surface side of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the active portion includes a protected region provided with the protective film and an unprotected region not provided with the protective film, and wherein the diode portion is included in the unprotected region and the protected region is included in the transistor portion.

A p-type semiconductor region is formed in a front surface side of an n-type semiconductor substrate. An n-type field stop (FS) region including protons as a donor is formed in a rear surface side of the semiconductor substrate. A concentration distribution of the donors in the FS region include first, second, third and fourth peaks in order from a front surface to the rear surface. Each of the peaks has a peak maximum point, and peak end points formed at both sides of the peak maximum point. The peak maximum points of the first and second peaks are higher than the peak maximum point of the third peak. The peak maximum point of the third peak is lower than the peak maximum point of the fourth peak.

A power diode includes a semiconductor body having an anode region and a drift region, the semiconductor body being coupled to an anode metallization of the power diode and to a cathode metallization of the power diode, and an anode contact zone and an anode damage zone, both implemented in the anode region, the anode contact zone being arranged in contact with the anode metallization, and the anode damage zone being arranged in contact with and below the anode contact zone, wherein fluorine is included within each of the anode contact zone and the anode damage zone at a fluorine concentration of at least 1016 atoms*cm-3.

A power diode includes a semiconductor body having an anode region and a drift region, the semiconductor body being coupled to an anode metallization of the power diode and to a cathode metallization of the power diode, and an anode contact zone and an anode damage zone, both implemented in the anode region, the anode contact zone being arranged in contact with the anode metallization, and the anode damage zone being arranged in contact with and below the anode contact zone, wherein fluorine is included within each of the anode contact zone and the anode damage zone at a fluorine concentration of at least 1016 atoms*cm-3.

A method for a heat treatment of a silicon single crystal wafer in an oxidizing ambient, including: performing the heat treatment based on a condition determined by a tripartite correlation between a heat treatment temperature during the heat treatment, an oxygen concentration in the silicon single crystal wafer before the heat treatment, and a growth condition of a silicon single crystal from which the silicon single crystal wafer is cut out. This provides a method for a heat treatment of a silicon single crystal wafer which can annihilate void defects or micro oxide precipitate nuclei in a silicon single crystal wafer with low cost, efficiently, and securely by a heat treatment in an oxidizing ambient.

A method of forming a compound semiconductor substrate includes providing a crystalline base substrate having a first semiconductor material and a main surface, and forming a first semiconductor layer on the main surface and having a pair of tracks disposed on either side of active device regions. The first semiconductor layer is formed from a second semiconductor material having a different coefficient of thermal expansion than the first semiconductor material. The pair of tracks have a relatively weaker crystalline structure than the active device regions. The method further includes thermally cycling the base substrate and the first semiconductor layer such that the first semiconductor layer expands and contracts at a different rate than the base substrate. The pair of tracks physically decouple adjacent ones of the active device regions during the thermal cycling.

A method of producing a semiconductor device is disclosed in which, after proton implantation is performed, a hydrogen-induced donor is formed by a furnace annealing process to form an n-type field stop layer. A disorder generated in a proton passage region is reduced by a laser annealing process to form an n-type disorder reduction region. As such, the n-type field stop layer and the n-type disorder reduction region are formed by the proton implantation. Therefore, it is possible to provide a stable and inexpensive semiconductor device which has low conduction resistance and can improve electrical characteristics, such as a leakage current, and a method for producing the semiconductor device.

A lattice matched epitaxial oxide interlayer is disposed between each semiconductor layer of a graded buffer layer material stack. Each lattice matched epitaxial oxide interlayer inhibits propagation of threading dislocations from one semiconductor layer of the graded buffer layer material stack into an overlying semiconductor layer of the graded buffer layer material stack. This allows for decreasing the thickness of each semiconductor layer within the graded buffer layer material stack. The topmost semiconductor layer of the graded buffer layer material stack, which is a relaxed layer, contains a lower defect density than the other semiconductor layers of the graded buffer layer material stack.

Provided is a semiconductor device manufacturing method. The device has a substrate including one and another surfaces. A first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type is formed in the substrate. A second conductivity type, second semiconductor region is provided in a first surface layer, that includes the one surface, of the substrate. A first electrode is in contact with the second semiconductor region to form a junction therebetween. A first conductivity type, third semiconductor region is provided in a second surface layer, that includes the another surface, of the substrate. The third semiconductor region has a higher impurity concentration than the first semiconductor region. A fourth semiconductor region of the second conductivity type is provided in the first semiconductor region at a location deeper than the third semiconductor region from the another surface. A second electrode is in contact with the third semiconductor region.