Changes on Forward Recovery among Si, Ge and SiC-Based PiN Diode

Abstract

Forward and reverse recovery are necessary factors of diode performance. This analysis demonstrates how the forward recovery properties of a PiN diode changed after the semiconductor materials were altered by Silicon (Si), Germanium (Ge), as well as Silicon Carbide (SiC) material. The diode industry, like that of other semiconductor devices, is dominated by Si,; nevertheless, SiC has recently gained popularity due to its several advantages, and Ge is also deployed in some cases. However, the results of the complete analyses in this work illustrate which of the three PiN diodes of the material type has the best forward recovery characteristics under particular parameters and setups by the COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5 software. The PiN diode, which is Ge based shows a faster forward recovery time, tfr, about 50ns, comparable to 110ns for the Si based PiN diode and 200ns for the SiC based PiN diode for a given current density rate, these are roughly twice and four times the Ge based PiN diode. Apart from that, the maximum forward recovery voltage drop of the Ge PiN diode is lower than the other two, thus it would have lower power loss than other two.