Schottky diodes problems

Another problem with Schottky diodes is that at high temperatures, the metal contact can anneal to the semiconductor, forming a silicide in the case of silicon and SiC [72, 80-83]. This can destroy the diode characteristic of the device, thus producing an unstable sensor. Use of an interfacial insulating layer, such as the oxide layer already mentioned, can prevent this from occurring. 

Active diamond electronics has not successfully developed. After the demonstration of rudimentary high temperature Schottky diodes and transistors, problems with the deposition of semiconductor quality thin diamond films has limited further development. Imposing step flow growth on homoepitaxial growth requires very expensive synthetic HP/HT diamond crystals cut under a specific angle. 

Unfortunately, the real situation with Schottky diodes is not so good as was presented in the previous section. A hint of such problems was provided in Equation 3.38 where a diode ideality factor appears. Theoretically, one can measure the work function of both the metal and the semiconductor using photoelectron spectroscopy and other techniques. From this and the work function of the metal, one should be able to estimate the Schottky barrier height. 

In one case, I remember that a standard Non-Synchronous Buck switcher IC was not working right. Everything seemed OK, the PCB, the decoupling, and so on. We tried swapping the switcher IC at first, but the problem stayed with that board. Eventually we traced it to the Schottky catch diode. We then discovered that cheap... 

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