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A discussion on various experimental methods of impact ionization coefficient measurement in GaN

Authors :
Dong Ji
Ke Zeng
Zhengliang Bian
Bhawani Shankar
Brendan P. Gunning
Andrew Binder
Jeramy R. Dickerson
Ozgur Aktas
Travis J. Anderson
Robert J. Kaplar
Srabanti Chowdhury
Source :
AIP Advances, Vol 12, Iss 3, Pp 030703-030703-8 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
AIP Publishing LLC, 2022.

Abstract

Impact ionization coefficients play a critical role in semiconductors. In addition to silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride are important semiconductors that are being seen more as mainstream semiconductor technologies. As a reflection of the maturity of these semiconductors, predictive modeling has become essential to device and circuit designers, and impact ionization coefficients play a key role here. Recently, several studies have measured impact ionization coefficients. We dedicated the first part of our study to comparing three experimental methods to estimate impact ionization coefficients in GaN, which are all based on photomultiplication but feature characteristic differences. The first method inserts an InGaN hole-injection layer, the accuracy of which is challenged by the dominance of ionization in InGaN, leading to possible overestimation of the coefficients. The second method utilizes the Franz–Keldysh effect for hole injection but not for electrons, where the mixed injection of induced carriers would require a margin of error. The third method uses complementary p–n and n–p structures that have been at the basis of this estimation in Si and SiC and leans on the assumption of a constant electric field, and any deviation would require a margin of error. In the second part of our study, we evaluated the models using recent experimental data from diodes demonstrating avalanche breakdown.

Subjects

Subjects :
Physics
QC1-999

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
21583226
Volume :
12
Issue :
3
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
AIP Advances
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.f3c09ca633544dbf89883e18c18fcb93
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0083111