Non Local Impact Ionization Effects in Semiconductor Devices

Abstract

Impact ionization processes define the breakdown characteristics of semiconductor devices. An accurate description of such phenomenon, however, is limited to very sophisticated device simulators such as Monte Carlo. A new physical model for the impact ionization process is presented, which accounts for dead space effects and high energy carrier transport at a Drift Diffusion level. Such model allows to define universal impact ionization coefficients which are device-geometry independent. By using available experimental data these parameters have been calculated for In_0.53Ga_0.47As.