Effect of anode area on the sensing mechanism of vertical GaN Schottky barrier diode temperature sensor

Effect of anode area on temperature sensing ability is investigated for a vertical GaN Schottky-barrier-diode sensor. The current-voltage-temperature characteristics are comparable to each other for Schottky barrier diodes with different anode areas, excepting the series resistance. In the sub-threshold region, the contribution of series resistance on the sensitivity can be ignored due to the relatively small current. The sensitivity is dominated by the current density. A large anode area is helpful for enhancing the sensitivity at the same current level. In the fully turn-on region, the contribution of series resistance dominates the sensitivity. Unfortunately, a large series resistance degrades the temperature error and linearity, implying that a larger anode area will help to decrease the series resistance and to improve the sensing ability.