PROC. 24th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MICROELECTRONICS (MIEL 2004).

VOL 1 , NIS, SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO, 16-19 MAY, 2004

Fast Recovery Diodes - Reverse Recovery Behaviour

and Dynamic Avalanche
Josef Lutz

Absrracr - This paper deals with the dynamics of the internal
charge carriers during the reverse ~-ecoveiyprocess of a fast power
diodc. For two conditions, simplified approximations are given
for analytical investigation, and pararncters for achieving soft
rccovcry are derived. Finally, both conditions are investigated
with regard to dynamic mggsdness.
I. INTRODUCTION
11. SNAPPY AND SOFT REVERSE
RECOVERY
The current waveform for a snappy diode is shown i n
Fig. la. In Fig. Ib the simulation of the internal behaviour
of the stored charge for a snappy diode is presented. The
line to shows the distribution of free carriers during on-
state. In the low doped base region, n = p holds. During

Fast recovery diodes are necessary in every modern

power electronic circuit. Using modern switching devices, \ i
high current slopes diidt occur, and it is essential that the
diode answers with soft recovery behaviour. It took a com-
paratively long time until sufficient solutions for soft-
\JL....
............. .............:.................
recovery were found. Diodes with control of the axial life-
time profile [ I ] or control of the p emitter efficiency [ 2 ] are snappy
meanwhile established. In the 600V - 1700V voltage range
they exhibit soft-recovery behaviour eveti tinder critical
conditions such as high diidt's and low currents. Also a
trench structures in the p-anode for improving the recovery
behaviour have been investigated [3]. However, for appli-
cations i n the voltage range >3000V, the existing solutions
arc not sufficient.
Device simulation is a powerful tool for designing a
soft recovery diode. But still not many papers have treated
the reverse recovery behaviour in an analytical way, al-
though, this is necessary for a complete understanding of
simulation results and for evaluating the critical conditions.
Moreover. if strong dynamical avalanche OCCLI~S, device
simulations show formation of current filaments, and it
becomes difficult to evaluate the results.
Therefore, this paper will try to give some useful ap-
proximations for the reverse recovery and dynamic rug-
gedness of fast power diodes. In a first part. the internal
behaviour in the diode for both snappy and for soft recov-
ery behauiour is presented qualitatively. In the second part, Depth w +
the internal phenomena are treated analytically A) during b
Fig. 1: Diode with snappy rrcoveiy behavior. Current (a). IioIc
the voltage build-up phase B) when the voltage is estab- dcnsity at diffcrcnt points in time (b)
lished and a tail current is flowing, hut snap-off of the tail-
current must he avoided. In final part, condition A) and B)
are investigated with respect to dynamic ruggedness. commutation, holes are removed to the left side and elec-
trons are removed to the right side, and the plasma zone is
feeding the current. t l and t2 show points in time wliere still
Josef Lutz is Professor for Power Electronics and Elcctromag- a reverse current is flowing. Immediately after t?. buth
in& Compatibility at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, fronts of the plasma meet, suddenly the source for feedinp
Clicmnitr University of Technology, Ilcichcnhainer Str. 70, D- the reverse current vanishes. The reverse current is inter-
09 126 Chcmnitz, Germany. E-mail:jlu~infotcct~.tu-chctntiitz.de rupted abruptly, leading to snappy recovery behaviour.

0-7803-8166-1/04/$17.00 0 2004 IEEE

11
 In the diode with soft recovery behaviour (Fig. 2a),
there is still enough plasma in the diode at t,, and if the
width between pn-junction and plasma is sufficient to take
the voltage until the end of the recovery process, no snap-
off will occur.

Fig. 3: Simplified model for the reverse recovery during the

voltage increase
holds. The boundary condition between the plasma and the
removed zone is
Doping iPl= in+ i, (1)
the difference in the hole current at the boundary is
j - j =Aj = .
Pi P P Jn
(2)
From Aj,, a movement of the plasma border to the right can
be derived according to [4]. Simplifying the carrier distri-
bution in Fig I at to in a first step as homogenous with
,,
= = n,
the velocity of the plasma boarder to the right
IS

In the same way, on the right side of the plasma zone

Depth the boundary condition is
io,= in+ j , (4)
Fig. 2: Diode with soft recovery behavior. Current (a), hole leading to
density at different points in time (b)
IVFl =
.- i- (5)
Whether the recovery behaviour is soft or snappy de-
pends on the final position of the plasma. It should be close P"+PP 4.n
to the right side. In Silicon, pn x 3p, holds, resulting in vI Z= 3v, . The
plasma hoarder moves three times faster from the pn-
junction side than from the nn' junction side. If is con- n
111. DYNAMICS
OF THE INTERNAL CHARGE stant, the plasma boarders will meet at

For an analytical treatment, simplifications are made.

The pn- and n'-junction are assumed as abrupt, and the
plasma fronts are treated as abrupt. Since the amount of
charge carriers removed by the current is much higher than
the recombination of charge carriers, recombination in this
time interval is neglected. Under these approximations, two
situations shall be described
A . Volrage Built-up Phase
The electrical field is built up between the plasma
and the pn-junction. Because of neutrality in the plasma
zone, the electrical field must be triangular as shown in Fig.
3. The contribution of the right side lo the voltage can be
neglected. Therefore the device can bear a voltage repre-
sented by the area under the E(w) with w = w., before the
plasma boarders meet.

The investigation for the behaviour of the stored
plasma in the phase of the voltage increase shall be done
similar to the model of Benda and Spenke [4]. Fig. 3 siin-
plifies the situation for a selected time in Fig. I . In the re-
maining plasma, j = j, + j, holds. At left side, towards the
pn-junction, the plasma is removed, for the current j = j,,
But in reality the carrier distribution in the on-state is
not homogenous. In a standard diode with highly doped
emitters and with homogenous lifetime it is higher oil the
pn-junction side (left side) than on the right side,
-
as shown
in Fig. 1. If n on the left side is simplified by 11, and on the
right side by i,, the division of (5) by (3) will lead to

12
 "r
- -
Pp -
ni p=- j
(9)
vi P,, 9. "sat(p)
lnserting this in ( 6 ) results in with v,,,~)approx. 1.107cin/s. The holes are of the same
1
I
polarity than the positive charged donors in the space-
lux = - 'Wg (8) charge, resulting in an effective doping
l+/lili//P,,nr N,, = N o + P (10)
Simplifying the distribution in Fig. I with 6 , = 2 .o, and the gradient
- of the electrical field is
leads to w, = 0,6ws. This means the standard diode will
snap of even at a lower voltage. To avoid snap off, the dE
-= -(IfD
4 +p )
width wB would have to he increased strongly. dw E
This situation for a diode with low base doping Nu is
shown in Fig. 5 . The voltage can he assiiined as constanl,
therefore the area under E(w) is constant. The hole density
is one factor in dE/dw, and p represents a hole current, ex-
tracted from the remaining plasma. With (9), now ( 3 ) trans-
fers to

J b r
map-on

Fis. 4: On-state plasma distribution for a standard diode and for

a soft recover), diode. Eniirrer reZions arc neglected.
I ?------ 5! !
' I:

On the other hand, if the distribution in Fig. I is in-

verted, lower on the pn - side than on the nn' - side, as
shown in Fig 4, the conditions are much better [SI. If
-
ni
= 0 ~ 3)?,. , (8) leads to w T =0,9. , y g , and soft recovery can

he achieved with a much thinner nAayer. This inversion of

the plasnia is done in all tnodem soft recovery diodes as
presented by [ I ] - [ 3 ] .
In real diodes, there are no abrupt, but diffused junc-
tions. The removal of the plasma will start earlier at the pn-
jiin~tionthan at the nn'-junction, this is a advantage for the
reverse recovery behaviour. A low gradient at the nn+-
junction may achieve that the final plasma zone remains
within the n' zone as shown in Fig. 2. On the other hand,
the assumed abrupt plasma borders are not real. Both de-
viations inay compensate, and (8) is a useful approximation
for the design.
B. T d Cwt-ent Phase
In Approximation B, it is assumed that the first phase
of reverse recovery was soft, and the device has established
the voltage. However, there is still plasma on the right side,
and a tail current is flowing. The tail current density j in the
free part of the base region is carried by holes flowing with
the saturation velocity v ~ . , ~their
) , density is
H
I
0
Fig. 5 : Snapp-off in the tail phase. Current (a), electrical field at
different points in time before snapp-off (b).
As the space charge is widened, dE/dw gets lower, p
and j are decreasing. But if the space charge reaches the
end of the base, while a significant current is flowing, the
source of the current suddenly vanishes and the current will
then snap-off. The electrical field springs from a triangular
to a trapezoidal shape.
To avoid this, the device must be capable of taking
the space charge at a given voltage without a hump of the
space charge to the n+-layer. The voltage limit, at which the
spice charge reaches the 11'-layer at a given hackground
doping N o and base-width wB, is

13
 4MO

While the battery voltage Ubr,is lower than U,,,, no snap off
will occur. This will be analysed more in detail in the paper 0 Nqasudal
[6] at this conference. It should be noted that (13) is the
same equation as applied for the punch-through of a thyris-
tor as given for example in [7] .
Tail current snap-off may occur especially in high
voltage diodes (>2000V). In such applications, often low
di/dt is applied, but the circuit contains significdnt parasitic
inductances. In order to keep U,,, high, the doping No is not ~

allowed to be too low. However, this is in contradiction to

demands from cosmic ray stability. Hence, an optimal t
i
trade-off must be found.
Approximation B has led t o a design rule for WB and ” c----; -I--.- ;,--;----~;- i-~~

N o , while approximation A led to a design rule for WB and 0 Irn 2rn 3M 4M 5m

for the plasma shape. In reality, both cases must to be taken
into account and there are transitions.
Iv. REVERSE
RECOVERY
AND RUGGEDNESS
Now, both approximations will be discussed regarding
to failure mechanisms.
A . Dynaiiiic Avalaiiche in the Voltage Bziild zip Phase
For the left side in Fig. 3, where the hole cwrent
flows, (9) is valid for the density of holes, and (IO) and
(1 1) are valid too, but only until avalanche takes place.
With the increase of dE/dw, Eo is increasing and may reach
the avalanche field strength. Then dynamic avalanche,
caused by free carriers, occurs.
Since the electrical field is triangular, the avalanche
onset voltage may be expressed with
Reverse current density j [Ncm
Fig. 6: Onset of dynamic avalanche depending on the reverse
current density
while, new diode designs are working safe far above [ I I].
Moderate dynamic avalanche is uncritical. Avalanche gen-
erates electrons, flowing through the space charge, there-
fore
N,, = NLI + P - n,, (15)
and the hole density is compensated, hence dynamical
avalanche i s self-stabilising [I21 But this holds only if there
are no weak points in the diode design, especially at the
edge of the active area. This aspect is described in [ 131.
But if the current density in avalanche is increased,
the shape of the electrical field will change [14], as shown
in Fig; 7. At 500A/cm2, the field is still nearly triangular.
But avalanche generation is not locally at the junction.
since carriers need a way for acceleration. Since holes are
flowing to the left, electrons are flowing to the right side,
the hole density increases close to the junction (a). At the

for the ionization coefficients the approximation of Shields

and Fulop [SI with C = 1,S~10”’cm6V~7 at 25°C is used. If
(9) and (IO) are inserted in (14). the onset voltage of ava-
lanche depending on the current density can be calculated,
as shown in Fig. 6. For No typical values for a 1700V and a
3300V diode (NI, = 4.3.10”cm~’rsp. 1 . 7 ~ 1 0 ’ ’ ~ m
are
~ ~used.
)
The onset-voltage of avalanche is decreasing for a high
voltage device. For the 3.3kV diode, avalanche occurs al-
ready at 30AIcm‘. For ZOOA/cm‘, the onset of dynamic
avalanche is already at 1 IOOV and only a little above the
1700V device. The base doping is of second order, and free
carriers dominate.
Dynamic avalanche was first believed to be the failure
limit for fast recovery diodes, even a ,.silicon limit“ at
250kWicni‘ was assumed. The alleged limit is also shown 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
in Fig. 6. But soon, diodes working clearly above this limit Position (pm)
have been shown by Nagasu et a1 [9] and Domeij et al [IO]. Fig. 7: Field shape at the pn-junction for dynamic avalanche
These operation points are also shown in Fig. 6. Mean- with increased current density.

14
junction holds

Therefore, a higher dE/dw results as shown for j =

lj00Ahn'. More away from the junction in region (b)
holds

while payis decreasing and n,, is increasing. Threfore, in

region (b) is a partial compensation, dE/dw is decreased.
Fig. 8: Simplified drawing for a double-sided space charge
The electrical field moves to an S-shaped form as shown in
during strong dynamic avalanche
Fig.7 f o r j = lj00A/cm2.
The voltage correlating to the area under E(w) is highly iinsbble with a time constant in the range of some
slightly lower for the higher current density. Therefore, the ns.
Wcharacieristics has a region of weakly negative differen- In a more simplified way, the problem can he de-
tial resistance. Therefore, the current splits in areas with scribed as follows. If there are two eleciric field peaks as
lower density and in filaments with high current density.
But these filaments should not be inevitably destruc-
tive. The current density in the filametits is limited. The
temperature inside the filament will increase leading to a
locally increased avalanche voltage which counteracts the
filamentation. And the high local current density in a fila-
ment removes the stored carriers in the local region, cotin-
teracting the driving force for dynamic avalanche. There-
Sore, the filaments move, as can be seen in 2D-device simu-
ldiions. and dynamic avalanche can still be stable. But 2D-
sirnulations are a limited picture of reality, because fila-
ments are a 3D effect.
U p to now the right side of the plasma zone was ne-
glected. Fig. 8 shows schematically the situation at the nnt-
junction tinder very high dynamic avalanche. During dy-
namic avalanche, additional electrons n,, are generated and
appear again in the zone between plasma and nd-junction.
c,k
e-s
.3 --
0.00
_ _ _ _ _2 _
.00
ULSLilncr
_.
nT
4.00
(Microns, "1'3-3
6 .U 0

The density of negatively charged electrons can get higher a

than the background doping, so a space charge can be
formed carried by a negative charge. I n this region holds

is the tolal electron density is >No. A field peak E,,,, may

be built tip, at high n,, it may reach the avalanche field
strength. A high current density filament is found when the
final plasma removal occurs while there is still dynamic
avalanche ai the pn junction [15]. This can lead lo a space
charge controlled current with a high electric field and im-
pact ionisation also at the nn' junction, i.e. a double-sided
dynamic avalanche. Fig. 9 shows a simulation under this
condition. This hammock-shaped electric field distribution
is similar to the field distribution at second breakdown as
described by Egawa iii [16]. The Egawa-instability is as- 50 100 IS0 200 250 300 350 400
sumed to be destructive. In a iiiathemalical way, this is ex-
plained in [ l j ] : Applying Wachutkas model for the
O p w [WI f
destruction limit u f GTOs [I71 to fast recovery diodes b pn-junction nt~+-junction
using the boundary conditions in [4] leads to the con- Fig. 9: Egawa instability at strong dynamic avalanche. a) CUI-
clusion. that dynamic impact ionization a t the pn-junction rent Rlarnenr a t the end of the plasma removal b) electric Field
should be stable, whereas impaci iunization ai the nn+- inside (x=3?00) and outside rhc filamcnt (x = 6000).
junction is highly unstable with a titile constant in the range

15
shown in Fig. 8, there are two possibilities to find a way to
the steady-state condition; a) if dynamic avalanche at the
junction ceases, n,, vanishes and the field at the n d -
junction is removed before the plasma is finally removed.
h) if there is a high field at the nn’-junction, when the
plasma boarders meet, the device must pass the Egawa-
instability. The possibility of either occurring depends on
the position of the final plasma in the diode, and the proc-
ess discussed here has clear similarities to the process
which leads to snappy or soft reverse recovery behaviour as
discussed in section II1.A. Again, a minimal width of the
space charge on the junction side is required tn take the
voltage before the plasma fronts meet. Based on simula-
tions and proved by experimental results, in [ I S ] a rule to
calculate the minimum value of wB required for a non-
destructive reverse recovery with dynamic avalanche in
dependence to the reverse voltage peak is given
-
2 -
1 7
-
w B = 2 3 . c 6 . vp k 6
+ wpios (19)
with wplar= 100pm. Vpkis a voltage peak immediately after
IRRM, depending on di/dt and L,,,. If (19) is respected, the
occurrence of the Egawa-instability during reverse-
recovery can he avoided.
B. Voltage P e a k by S n a p o f i n the Tail Phase
In section I L B , it was shown that snap-off of the cur-
rent can occur also at a late point in the tail-phase. In this
moment, there is no avalanche in the diode, although some
dynamic avalanche might be happened before. Now the
electric field (see fig. Sb) is far beyond the avalanche con-
dition. But a current snap-off will cause a voltage peak,
and if there is snap-off from a still high tail current and if
L,,, is significant, the induced voltage peak will reach the
static avalanche voltage.
Also in static avalanche, generated holes are removed
to the pn-junction side and electrons to the nn+-junction
side. At the nn+-junction, similar to (9) a electron density
n,, can be calculated. For example, a avalanche current
density of 28Aicm‘ is sufficient to compensate a base dop-
ing ND = 1,7 1O”cm” in a 3.3kV diode, and dE/dw at the
nn*-jtinction will change its sign. Such current densities at
the nn’-junction can easily be reached, since in modem
planar devices avalanche starts first at one point at the edge
of the device. In this case, a second voltage peak will grow
at the nn’-junction, and a failure mechanism with a field
shape similar to Fig. 9b can occur. This mechanism was
originally analysed by Egawa [I61 for the case of static
avalanche.
To avoid this failure mechanism, it is necessary to fol-
low the rule (13) for avoiding snap-off in the tail phase.
Increased n-doping before the nn+-junction - as possible by
buffer layers or b y a shallow gradient of the doping at the
nn‘-junction - promise to enlarge the stability against ava-
lanche. However, this must be fnrther investigated.
16
V. CONCLUSION
In order to avoid snap off in the first phase and to
avoid destructive conditions caused by dynamic aVdlatlChe,
rules for a minimal base width and for the shape of the
plasma in the on-state have been derived. To avoid snap off
in the tail phase, a rule which contains wB and background
doping No is given which is similar to an equation for
punch-through in thyristors. Respecting both rules can lead
to diodes with soft recovery and high dynamic ruggedness
in the voltage range equal and above 3.3kV.
The process at the nn+-junction is of main importance
in all cases. The Egawa-instability was found as limiting
mechanism for the ruggedness of fast recovery diodes. Fur-
ther design measures at the nn+-junction such as buffer
structures and others are possible to improve soft recovery
and dynamic ruggedness.
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