EED102: Semiconductor

Devices
Dr. Venkatnarayan Hariharan
Dept of Electrical Engg., Shiv Nadar Univ., Delhi NCR

EED102 - VH - L14 0
Agenda
• P-N junction: Turn-off transient

EED102 - VH - L14 1
 Transient Behavior
• As we have seen
in L12/13, there is
stored charge in
the QNR due to
minority carrier
injection
• When switching a
diode from ON to
OFF (ie. forward
to reverse bias), it
takes some time
to empty out this
charge, this limits
the switching
speed
EED102 - VH - L14 2
 Transient Behavior
• To analyze the transient behavior, the time variation of the continuity
equation needs to be retained (lecture L10)
• Integrating the continuity equation for a carrier throughout the QNR side
where that carrier is a minority carrier, and noting that the minority carrier
current far from the DR-edge is 0 while close to the DR-edge is the complete
current contributed by that carrier-type (viz. 𝐽𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓 , since 𝐽𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑡 ≈ 0 at DR-
edge), it can be shown that:
𝑄𝑐 𝑑𝑄𝑐 (𝑡)
𝑖𝑐 𝑡 = + where the suffix 𝑐 is 𝑛 and 𝑝 in turn
𝜏𝑐 𝑑𝑡
• This is the Charge Control Model (CCM):
𝒊 𝒕 = 𝒊𝒑 𝒕 + 𝒊𝒏 (𝒕)
𝑸𝒑 𝒅𝑸𝒑 (𝒕)
𝒊𝒑 𝒕 = + where 𝑄𝑝 and 𝜏𝑝 are on the n-side QNR
𝝉𝒑 𝒅𝒕
𝑸𝒏 𝒅𝑸𝒏 (𝒕)
𝒊𝒏 𝒕 = + where 𝑄𝑛 and 𝜏𝑛 are on the p-side QNR
𝝉𝒏 𝒅𝒕
EED102 - VH - L14 3
 Transient Behavior
• For example, for holes these equations can be interpreted
as the hole current injected across the junction being
determined by two charge storage effects in the n-QNR:
𝑸𝒑
1. The usual recombination term in which the excess carrier
𝝉𝒑
distribution is replaced every 𝝉𝒑 seconds, and
𝒅𝑸𝒑 (𝒕)
2. A charge buildup (or reduction) term , which allows for the
𝒅𝒕
fact that the distribution of excess carriers can be increasing or
decreasing as a time-dependent problem
• Note: In steady-state (as we studied in L12/L13), we had
omitted the time derivative term, as is to be expected
EED102 - VH - L14 4
 Current-forced Turn-off Transient
• Consider a p+-n diode that is forward biased
using a current source 𝐼. As discussed, there
will be a forward voltage drop 𝑉 across the
diode, that is suitably built to support that
current using the diode I-V relation
• Suppose the current-source is suddenly
switched off at 𝑡 = 0. Contrary to a naïve
expectation, the voltage 𝑉 won’t die off
instantly. It takes some time, this is called the
step turn-off transient
EED102 - VH - L14 5
 Current-forced Turn-off Transient
• A p+-n diode is a junction where the p-side is much heavier doped than
the n-side. Hence, it is a good approximation to consider only the excess
holes injected in the n-QNR, for total current & charge computation
• Since the excess holes in the n-QNR must die out by recombination with
the matching excess electron population, some time is required for
𝑄𝑝 𝑡 to reach zero
• We can solve it easily by solving
the CCM for holes, at 𝑡 > 0:
𝑄𝑝 𝑑𝑄𝑝 (𝑡)
+ = 0 where 𝑄𝑝 0 = 𝐼𝜏𝑝
𝜏𝑝 𝑑𝑡

• The solution is:

𝑄𝑝 𝑡 = 𝐼𝜏𝑝 𝑒 −𝑡Τ𝜏𝑝
EED102 - VH - L14 6
 Current-forced Turn-off Transient
• An important implication of this is that even though the
current is suddenly stopped, the voltage across the
junction has to persist until 𝑄𝑝 disappears, in order to
support that excess charge that is responsible for 𝑄𝑝
• The excess hole concentration is related to junction
voltage by the below equation (refer L12.Slide9)
Δ𝑝𝑛 (𝑡) = 𝑝 𝑥𝑛0 , 𝑡 − 𝑝𝑛 = 𝑝𝑛 𝑒 𝑞𝑣 𝑡 Τ𝑘𝑇 − 1
EED102 - VH - L14 7
 Current-forced Turn-off Transient
• We further make a quasi-steady-state approximation
where we assume 𝛿𝑝 𝑥 as an exponential even though it
isn’t exactly (because of 𝑆𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒 = 0 due to 𝑖(𝑡 = 0+ ) =
0):
𝛿𝑝 𝑥𝑛 , 𝑡 = Δ𝑝𝑛 𝑡 𝑒 −𝑥𝑛 Τ𝐿𝑝 in the p-QNR
• Integrating the above along the QNR, we can find
𝑄𝑝 (𝑣 𝑡 )
• Then, we can equate this with the 𝑄𝑝 expression on slide
6 to solve for 𝑣 𝑡
EED102 - VH - L14 8
 Current-forced Turn-off Transient
• We get:
𝒌𝑻 𝑰𝝉𝒑
𝒗 𝒕 = 𝐥𝐧 𝒆−𝒕Τ𝝉𝒑 + 𝟏
𝒒 𝒒𝑨𝑳𝒑 𝒑𝒏
• A plot of this will show that the voltage stays fixed at a
constant value of the forward voltage drop (approximately
0.7 𝑉) for about 15-20 minority carrier lifetimes (about
15𝜏𝑝 to 20𝜏𝑝 ), and thereafter slowly dies down to 0
• This shows that the voltage across a p-n junction cannot be
changed instantaneously when it is switched off by a current
source, because that stored charge takes time to vanish
EED102 - VH - L14 9
Current-forced Turn-off Transient
GNUPlot code to generate this plot:
reset session

vt=0.026
I=1.06e-3
tau_p=10e-6
q=1.6e-19
A_cm2=1e-4
Lp_cm=1.08e-2
p_n_per_cc=2.25e5

v(x)=vt*log(1+(I*tau_p/(q*A_cm2*Lp_cm*p_n_per_cc))*exp(-x/tau_p))

set xlabel "Time (us)"

set ylabel "Voltage (V)"
set xrange [0:400]
set nokey
set grid

set label "Using the same parameters for holes \nin n-side as in
the solved example in L13" at 200,0.65

plot v(x*1e-6) with lines

EED102 - VH - L14 10
 Voltage-forced Turn-off Transient
• Consider a p+-n diode that is forward biased using a voltage source 𝐸 (through a
resistor, as usual) such that 𝐸 ≫ forward voltage drop of a diode (approximately
0.7𝑉). There will be a forward current 𝐼𝑓 through the diode, consistent with the
diode I-V relation, albeit 𝐼𝑓 will be predominantly governed by the resistance 𝑅,
viz.: 𝐼𝑓 ≈ 𝐸 − 0.7 Τ𝑅 ≈ 𝐸 Τ𝑅
• Suppose the voltage-source is suddenly
reversed at 𝑡 = 0 to −𝐸, ie. reverse bias.
Contrary to a naïve expectation, the
current through the diode won’t die off
instantly. It takes some time, this is called
the reverse recovery transient
• The associated delay is called the storage
delay time 𝑡𝑠𝑑 , that we analyze here
EED102 - VH - L14 11
 Voltage-forced Turn-off Transient
• The underlying cause for this phenomenon is
similar, viz. it takes time to flush out the
stored charge due to excess minority carriers
(in this case, predominantly excess holes in
the n-QNR)
• The spatial profile of the
excess holes in the n-QNR is
shown alongside, at various
snapshots of time
• We next discuss this
behavior in detail
EED102 - VH - L14 12
 Voltage-forced Turn-off Transient
• When 𝐸 is reversed (𝑡 = 0+ ), the voltage across the diode cannot
change instantly, due to the charge storage arising from excess
minority carriers. Hence by KVL, the −𝐸 voltage falls almost
entirely across the resistor 𝑅. Hence the current initially reverses
to 𝑖 𝑡 = 𝐼𝑟 ≈ −𝐸/𝑅. This reverse current slowly reduces/sucks-
out the excess stored charge
• As the stored minority charge reduces in the QNR especially close
to the DR-edge, we can find the junction voltage again from the
voltage-dependence relation for excess minority carriers Δ𝑝𝑛
reiterated on slide 7. Nevertheless, as long as Δ𝑝𝑛 > 0, the
junction voltage 𝑣 𝑡 > 0 and small (≈ 0.7𝑉) and getting even
smaller. Therefore 𝑖 𝑡 continues to be 𝑖 𝑡 = 𝐼𝑟 ≈ −𝐸/𝑅, until
Δ𝑝𝑛 goes to 0. Thereafter, when Δ𝑝𝑛 < 0, the junction exhibits a
negative voltage (consistent with reverse bias)
EED102 - VH - L14 13
•
Voltage-forced Turn-off Transient
Since the reverse-bias voltage of a junction
can be very large, KVL dictates that 𝐸 now
divides between 𝑅 and the junction, thereby
reducing the magnitude of the reverse
current. As time proceeds, the magnitude of
the reverse current becomes smaller as more
of −𝐸 appears across the reverse biased
junction, until finally the only current is the
small reverse saturation current 𝐼0
• The time 𝒕𝒔𝒅 required for the stored charge
(and therefore the junction voltage) to
become zero is called the storage delay time
EED102 - VH - L14 14
Voltage-forced Turn-off Transient
• As before, we can solve this using the CCM for holes, at 𝑡 > 0:
𝑄𝑝 𝑑𝑄𝑝 (𝑡)
𝜏𝑝
+ 𝑑𝑡 = −𝐼𝑟 where 𝑄𝑝 0 = 𝐼𝑓 𝜏𝑝
𝑑𝑄𝑝 (𝑡) 𝑄𝑝 𝑑𝑄𝑝 (𝑡)
∴ = − 𝐼𝑟 + ⇒ = −𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝑡 𝜏𝑝 𝑄𝑝
𝐼𝑟 + 𝜏
𝑝
𝑄𝑝 𝑡
𝑄𝑝
𝐼𝑟 +
𝑑𝑄𝑝 (𝑡) 𝜏𝑝
∴ න = − න 𝑑𝑡 ⇒ 𝜏𝑝 ln = −𝑡
𝑄𝑝 𝐼𝑟 + 𝐼𝑓
𝐼𝑓 𝜏𝑝 𝐼𝑟 + 0
𝜏𝑝
𝑄𝑝
∴ 𝐼𝑟 + = 𝐼𝑟 + 𝐼𝑓 𝑒 −𝑡Τ𝜏𝑝 ⇒ 𝑄𝑝 𝑡 = 𝜏𝑝 𝐼𝑟 + 𝐼𝑓 𝑒 −𝑡Τ𝜏𝑝 − 𝐼𝑟
𝜏𝑝
−𝑡𝑠𝑑 𝐼𝑟 𝑡𝑠𝑑 𝐼𝑟 +𝐼𝑓
∴ 𝑄𝑝 𝑡𝑠𝑑 = 0 ⇒ 𝐼𝑟 + 𝐼𝑓 𝑒 −𝑡𝑠𝑑Τ𝜏𝑝 − 𝐼𝑟 = 0 ⇒ = ln ⇒ = ln
𝜏𝑝 𝐼𝑟 +𝐼𝑓 𝜏𝑝 𝐼𝑟
𝑰𝒇
∴ 𝒕𝒔𝒅 = 𝝉𝒑 𝐥𝐧 𝟏 +
𝑰𝒓
EED102 - VH - L14 15
 Voltage-forced Turn-off Transient

Effects of storage delay time on switching

signal: (a) switching voltage; (b) diode current
EED102 - VH - L14 16
Summary of Both Transient Analyses
• Similarities between current-forced & voltage-forced
transients:
• In both cases there are excess minority carriers to be removed
when switching from ON to OFF
• Thus, it is like capacitive action (called diffusion capacitance, as
we’ll discuss later), where we know as a thumb-rule that voltage
across a capacitor cannot change suddenly (because changing
charge takes time). Hence the voltage takes some time to settle to
its final value
• In both cases, the peak voltage across the junction is of the order
of the forward diode drop, which is of the order of 0.2V − 0.7𝑉
depending on the kind of diode
EED102 - VH - L14 17
Summary of Both Transient Analyses
• Differences between the analysis-approach of the
current-forced & voltage-forced transient problem:
• In the current-forced case, the total current term in the CCM
is made 0, consistent with the situation’s demand
• In the voltage-forced case, the situation doesn’t demand the
current to be 0. But to be consistent with potential-
dependent carrier statistics (slide 7), a voltage 𝑣 𝑡 has to be
present to support the excess carrier profile (as was the case
in the current-forced case too). Since this voltage is small
compared to the external bias 𝐸, the current is largely
determined by the resistor and is 𝐼𝑟 ≈ −𝐸/𝑅, which is set as
the total current term in the CCM
EED102 - VH - L14 18
 Optimizing Turn-off Transients
• Some common ways to mitigate such problems of
stored charge when making fast switching diodes:
1. Design the diode with the lighter doped side (e.g. n-
QNR if it’s a p+-n diode) being very short in length. If
shorter than a minority carrier diffusion length (e.g. 𝐿𝑝
in this case), very little charge is stored. This is called a
short-base diode
2. Intentionally dope with recombination centers (mid-gap
trap levels), such as Au atoms in Si, to increase the
recombination rate in the QNR (though this degrades 𝐼0 ,
so it’s a trade-off)
EED102 - VH - L14 19
END OF LECTURE

EED102 - VH - L14 20