An Improved Physics-Based Formulation of the Microwave p-i-n Diode Impedance

Abstract

Abstract-An improved formulation of the frequency-dependent impedance for p-i-n diodes from physical and geometrical parameters is presented. This work is addressed to diode designers and allows them to evaluate quickly and accurately the diode impedance. It comes in parallel with existing SPICE p-i-n diode model [1] used in CAD software. Under forward bias conditions, important recombinations occur in the heavily doped end regions of thin p-i-n diodes that seriously affects the diode impedance. This effect is taken into account to increase the accuracy of existing numerical models and to extend their validity domain to any I-region thicknesses. This improvement has been validated by measurement results on a 5-m I-region width silicon p-i-n diode.Index Terms-Bias-dependent impedance, carrier lifetime, forward bias, p-i-n diode, recombinations.

Search of appropriate semiconductor for PIN Diode fabrication in terms of resistance analysis

“…Shockley-Read-Hall [5] [7] recombination in the neutral base region gives the ambipolar life-time of the carrier which is given as:…”

“…PIN diode is particularly useful for RF design applications for RF switching, or attenuating element in RF switches and RF attenuators because of its frequency dependent resistance. At higher frequencies as well as lower frequencies application of diode requires a good estimation of its impedance for determining the insertion loss, isolation and other electrical properties [3] [4] [5]. Under forward bias condition, the impedance of PIN diode is controlled by stored charge (Q) in the I-region [6].For optimum efficiency at low cost, it is necessary to first simulates and designs the device prior to fabrication in the development of the system.…”

Analysis of Ambipolar Intrinsic Resistance of PIN Diode for Different Semiconductors Suitable for Power Devices

“…Good estimation of diode impedance is required in microwave frequency, high frequency and low frequency operations. At low frequency intrinsic region acts as short circuit and in high frequency, impedance of the diode is dominated by conductivity of the intrinsic region [1]. The diffusion of positive and negative charge in the presence of an electric field is considered and implemented in this work.…”

Comparison between textured SnO2:F and Mo contacts with the p-type layer in p–i–n hydrogenate amorphous silicon solar cells by forward bias impedance analysis

“…In this work we perform an accurate electrical characterization under dark condition, by using current-voltage and forward bias small signal impedance, of the textured SnO 2 :F and Mo contacts with the p-type layer in p-i-n a-Si:H solar cells. The small signal impedance under forward bias was used to determine the effective carrier lifetime s eff (Caverly and Ma, 1989;Schlangenotto and Gerlach, 1969;Gatard et al, 2007;Caverly, 1998;Caverly and Hiller, 1990). Methodologies for the evaluation of the carrier lifetime in solar cells are important to characterize the carrier recombination mechanisms in photovoltaic devices.…”

“…On the other hand, the DC forward bias current density (J) depends on the total injected charge density Q into the p-i-n diode through an effective carrier lifetime s eff , defined as Q = Js eff . The s eff is the average time during which the electron-hole pair exists in the intrinsic layer (Caverly, 1998) and in the doped regions (Gatard et al, 2007).…”