Abstract
Using the hydrodynamic model of semiconductor devices, the authors simulate an abrupt p-n junction under strong reverse bias, accounting for impact ionization by means of electron and hole generation rates dependent on the carrier temperature. They demonstrate the influence of impact ionization as a cooling mechanism on the mean energy and velocity of the carriers, and show that the ionization coefficients alpha /sub n/ and alpha /sub p/ are spatially retarded with respect to the normally used electric-field dependent ones; this results in larger multiplication factors M/sub n/ and M/sub p/. The reason for this effect is traced back to the increased impact-ionization probability of secondary generated carriers having the chance to travel through a larger portion of the high-field region. This is shown qualitatively by discussing the impact ionization integrals, and is estimated quantitatively through the simulation.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>
Published Version
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