A model for the dc electrical behavior of bulk-barrier diodes

Contents  This paper presents an analytical model for the dc electrical behavior of bulk barrier diodes (BBD's). The proposed model extends previously published models, and includes analytical expressions for all significant quantities of the device dc performance, i.e. barrier height, current density and ideality factor, with respect to the technological parameters and the applied voltage in both bias conditions. The analytical results have been compared with those obtained using the 2-D device simulator S-PISCES, which takes into account the drift–diffusion theory, as well as a concentration and field dependent mobility, the Shockley–Read–Hall and Auger carrier recombination, and the band gab narrowing. Good agreement was obtained between theory and simulation. The device simulation played a very important role in best understanding BBD's behavior, because it could easily take into account parameters strongly affecting the behavior of BBD's, e.g. the free carrier presence in depletion layers, which was very difficult for the analytical model to include. Received: 15 January 2001