Open Access Conference Proceedings

Diamond can become highly conductive due to impurity impact ionization and avalanche effects when sufficiently doped with boron and exposed to high electric field. Knowledge of those effects is important for the fabrication of potential novel high power electronic devices. High currents and voltages make characterization of impurity impact ionization uneasy and require pulsed characterization measurement methods to limit thermal effects. In this work, we first present the synthesis of epitaxial boron doped diamond layers by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition and their microfabrication process and then we study their electrical properties in high electric field. Second, we describe the home-made Transmission Line Pulse current-voltage (I-V) characterization setup based on a Blumlein pulse generator. Finally, quasi-static I-V characteristic has been measured showing impurity impact ionization and avalanche effect at high electric field.

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