**2. Schottky Contacts to n-Type 4H-SiC**

In the last three decades, many efforts have been devoted to the study and characterization of the metal/4H-SiC interfaces. Despite the large amount of literature data published on this system, the physics at the base of the Schottky properties and carrier transport through the contact is not yet fully understood, and the research on Schottky contacts to 4H-SiC remains a scientifically open topic. Besides its fundamental scientific character, this research is also strongly pushed by industrial requirements for achieving a more efficient performance of SBDs. In this Section, we briefly report on the Schottky barrier fundamentals, the well-established and the most promising metallization schemes, discussing also

some aspects related to the device layouts proposed to optimize the electrical properties of the diodes.
