Notes from the Book

Fundamentals of Modern VLSI Devices

Book Authors: Taur and Ning
Adersh.Miglani@gmail.com
Last Updated: August 4, 2014
Contents
1 Chapter 1: Introduction 2
2 Chapter 2: Basic Device Physics 3
2.1 Discharge Time of a Forward-Biased Diode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Diusion Capacitance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 MOS Capacitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4 Key Notes from the Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3 Chapter 3: MOSFET Devices 12
4 Chapter 4: CMOS Device Design 13
5 Chapter 5: CMOS Performance Factuors 14
6 Chapter 6: Bipolar Devices 15
7 Chapter 7: Bipolar Device Design 16
8 Chapter 8: Bipolar Performance Factors 17
9 Chapter 9: Memory Devices 18
10 Chapter 10: Silicon On Insulator 19
1
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
2
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Basic Device Physics
2.1 Discharge Time of a Forward-Biased Diode
1. Suppose a n
+
-p diode with base as n-type is forward-biased during t < 0 and reverse-biased during
t > 0. To understand the discharge time the forward bias and reverse bias voltage is more than
the voltage across the depletion region which is of the order of 1V. At t = 0, the external bias is
switched to a reverse voltage of V
R
. The excess electrons in the base start to diuse back towards
the depletion region of the diode. Those electrons at the edge of depletion region of base are swept
away by the electric eld in the depletion region towards the n
+
-emitter at a saturated velocity of
about 10
7
cm/s.
2. The depletion layer width is on the order of 0.1m. The transit time across the depletion region is
typically on the order of 10
2
s. Except for diodes of very narrow base widths, this time is extremely
short compared to the total time for emptying the excess electrons out of the base region.Thus, as
long as there are sucient excess electrons in the base region, the reverse current is limited not by
the diusion of excess electrons but by the external resistor and has a value of I
R
V
R
/R,
and the slope (dn
p
/dx)
x=0
, being proportional to I
R
, is approximately constant.
3. As the excess electrons start to disharge, part of the external voltage start so appear acrosss the
p-n junction, and the junction becomes less forward bias. Under forward bias and small reverse
bias, the electron density on the p-side at the space-charge-layer edge is given as
n
p
(x
p
) = n
p0
(x
p
)exp(qV

app
/kT)
From the above equation, it is evident that if the excess electron concentration at the edge of
depletion layer has decreased by a factor of 10, the juncion voltage is changed by only 2.3kT/q
or 60mV . This is consistent with our assumptions that the reverse current remains essentially
constant. During this time, the diode remains in the ON condition.
4. At t = t
s
, the excess electrons have been depleted to the point that the reverse current is limited
by the diusion of electrons instead of by the external resistor. Rate of voltage change across the
junction increases. Finally, when all the excess electrons are removed, the p-n diode is completely
o. The reverse bias voltage appears entirely across the junction, and the reverse current is limited
by the diode leakage current. There are two stages in switching a diode from forward to reverse
bias voltage. The rst one is when reverse current is approximately constant, and during which
the remains in ON condition. The second one is when the reverse current decreases exponentially
to reverse saturation current.
5. Discharge time for a wide-base diode: A forward-biased wide-base diode discharges with a time
constant approimately equal to the minority-carrier lifetim, unless the reverse discharge current
is much larger than the forward charging current. Even for I
R
/R
F
= 10, the diode discharges
in a time of approximation
n
/10 which is larger than 10
8
s for most diodes of practical doping
concentrations. This time is very long compared to the typical switching delays of VLSI circuits.
The important point is that it takes a long time to drain o the excess minority carriers
stored in a wide-base and turn it o. It is important to minimize excess minority carriers
stored in forward-biased diodes if these diodes are to be switched o fast.
3
6. Discharge time for a narrow-base diode: For a narrow base diode, the recombination time is
ignored. The discharge time is very small compared to
n
. The discharge time for a narror-base
diode lasts approximately t
B
I
F
/(I
R
+ R
F
) which, for a large I
R
/I
F
ratio, can be much shorter
than the base transit time. Therefore, a forward-biased narrow-base diode can be switched
o fast.
2.2 Diusion Capacitance
1. For a forward biased diode, in addition to the capacitance associated with the space-charge layer,
there is an important capacitance component associated with the rearrnagement of the excess
minority carriers in the diode in response to a chaneg in applied voltage. This minority-carrier
capacitance is called diusion capacitance C
D
.
2. An n
+
-p wide-emitter narrow-base diode has depth or width of the n
+
emitter region is large
compared to its hole diusion length and the width of p-type base is small compared to its electron
diusion length (This diode is of interest because it represents the emitter-base diode of an n-
p-n bipolar transistor). When a voltage V
app
is applied across the diode, an electron current of
magnitude I
n
is injected from the emitter into the base and a hole current of magnitude I
p
is injected
from the base into the emitter. The diode current is I
n
+ I
p
. Both I
n
and I
p
are proportional to
exp(qV
app
/kT).
3. Diusion capacitance components:
(a) In a quasisteady state, the voltage is assumed to vary slowly in time such that the minority
charge distribution can respond to the applied voltage fully without any delay.
(b) When a forward bias is reduced, or when the diode is switched to reverse bias, the electron
distribution evolves as a function of time. Part of exccess electrons diuses to the left (back
towards the emitter) and part of them diuses to the right. The opposing electron current
suggests that the net charge moved through the external circuit is less than the total stored
charge at t = 0.
(c) When ac voltage is applied across the diode, only those electrons located suciently chose
to the depletion-region boundaries can keep up with the signal and get into and out of the
base. The exact amount of such electrons depends on the signal frequency. Similarly, if we
consider the stored holes in the emitter, the signal following holes gives rise to a hole current
component at the base end of emitter region adn in the external circuit. These signal-following
stored charges are responsible for the diusion capacitance.
(d) The exact diusion capacitance components are derived from a frequency depenent small-
signal analysis of the current through a diode start from the dierential equations governing
the transport of minority carriers. Appendix 6 has the derivation for wide-emitter narror-base
diode.
(e) For a wide-emitter, the low-frequency diussion capacitance due to the excess electrons in the
narrow-base is
C
Dn
=
qI
n
V
app
kT

W
2
B
3D
nB

=
2
3
q
kT
I
n
V
app
t
B
and that due to the excess holes in the wide-emitter is
C
Dp
=
qI
p
V
app
kT

L
2
pE
2D
pE

=
1
2
q
kT
I
p
V
app

pE
4. The total diusion capacitance is
C
D
= C
Dn
+C
Dp
5. It is clear from these expressions that 2/3 of the stored charge in the narrow-base and 1/2 of the
stored charge in wide-emitter contribute to the diussion capacitance of a forward-biased diode.
6. The 2/3 of the total stored stored charge in the narrow base diuses back to the emitter when the
base region is discharged. This fraction is same as the fraction of total stored charge in the base
contributing to the diusion capacitance. In other words, one can think of the diusion capacitance
as coming from the portion of the stored minority charge that is reclaimable in the form of an ac
current as the diode respond to an ac signal.
4
7. It is instructive to examine the relative magnitude of the two capacitance components
C
Dn
(narrow base)
C
Dp
(wide emitter)
=
2
3
N
E
N
B
W
B
L
pE
The ratio N
E
/N
B
is typically about 100 for an n
+
-p diode. For an emitter with N
E
= 1 10
20
cm
3
, L
p
E is about 0.3 m. Therefore, for a practical one-sided diodes where the base width
is larger than 0.03 m, the ratio C
Dn
/C
Dp
is much larger than unity. That is, the diussion
capacitance of one-sided p-n diode is dominated by the minority charge stored in the base. The
diusion capacitance due to minority charged stored in the emitter is small in comparision.
8. The eect of heavy doping, when included, will increase the amount of charge stored and hence
the diusion capacitance. Since heavy doping eect is larger in the more heavily doped emitter
than in the base, it will make the ratio C
Dn
/C
Dp
smaller. This aect the switching speed. The
expression with heavy doping is shown as
C
Dn
(narrow base)
C
Dp
(wide emitter)
=
2
3

n
2
ieB
n
2
ieE

N
E
N
B

W
B
L
pE
Therefore, the heavy-doping eects cannot be ignored in any quantitative modeling of the switching
speed of a diode.
2.3 MOS Capacitors
1. Energy band diagram of an MOS system
(a) Before we discuss the energy band diagram of an MOS device, it is necessary to rst introduce
the concept of free electron level and work function which play key roles in the relative energy
band placement when two dierent materials are brought into contact. The free electron
level is dened as the energy level above which the electron is free, i.e., no longer bonded to
the lattice. In silicon, the free electron level is 4.05 eV above the conduction band edge. In
other words, an electron at the conduction band edge must gain an additional energy of 4.05
eV (called electron anity in order to break loose from the crystal eld of silicon. The free
electron level in silicon dioxide is 0.95 eV above its conduction band. The work function is
dened as the dierence between the free electron level and the Fermi level. For a p-type
silicon, the work function, q
s
can be expressed as:
q
s
= q +
E
g
2
+q
B
where
B
is the dierence between the Fermi potential and the intrinsic Fermi potential.
(b) When two dierent materials ar brought into contact, they must share the same free electron
level at the interface.
(c) Under atband condition, there is no eld in all three materials. If metal work function is less
than the silicon substrate, we need to apply negative gate voltage, (
s

m
)
ms
, with
respect to the substrate. In general, the atband voltage of an MOS device is given by
V
fb
= (
m

s
)
Q
ox
C
ox
where Q
ox
is oxide charge per unit area and C
ox
is the oxide capacitance per unit area.
(d) The electron anity, q, is the material property which depends only on the type of semicon-
ductor and does not change with either the location or the doping type.
2. Gate voltage and surface potential
2.4 Key Notes from the Chapter
1. The most important result of the application of quantum mechanics to the descriptio of electronics
in a solid is that the allowed energy levels of electrons are grouped into bands. The bands are
separated by regions of energy that the electrons in the solid cannot possess: forbidden gaps.
5
2. The energy of electrons in the conduction band increases upward, while energy of the holes in the
valence band increases downward.
3. The bandgap decreases slightly as the temperature increases, with a temperature coecient of
dE
g
/dT 2.73 10
4
eV/K.
4. When two systems are in thermal equilibrium with no current ow between them, their Fermi
levels must be equal. A direction extension is that, or a continuous region of metals and/or
semiconductors in contact, the Fermi level at theermal equilibrium is at, i.e., spatially constant,
throughout the region.
5. The electrical conductivity of an exterinsic semiconductor is dominated by the type and concen-
tration of the impurity atoms, or dopants.
6. In terms of energy-band diagrams, donors add allowed electon states in the bandgap close to the
conduction-band edge, while acceptors add allowed states just above te valence-band edge.
7. The Fermi level in n-type semiconductor moves up towards the conduction band, consistent with
the increase in electron density. On the other hand, the Fermi level in p-type semiconductor moves
down towards the valence band, consistent with the increase in hole density. The exact position of
Fermi level depends on both the ionization energy and the concentration of dopants.
8. It is seen that as the temperature increases, the Fermi level approaches the intrinsic value near
midgap.
9. The distance between the Fermi level and the intrinsic Fermi level near the midgap is a logarithmic
function of doping concentration.
10. The Fermi level moves into the conduction band for n
+
semiconductor and into the valence band
for p
+
semiconductor. In addition, when impurity concentration is higher than 10
18
10
19
cm
3
,
the donor levels braoden into bands. This results in an eective decrease in the ionization energy
until nally the impurity band merges with the conduction (or valence) band and the ionization
energy become zero. Under these circumstances, the silicon is said to be degenerate.
11. Carrier transport or current ow in semiconductor is driven by two dierent mechanisms: (a) the
drift of carriers, which is caused by the presence of an electric eld, and (b) the diusion of carriers,
which is caused by an electron or hole concentration gradient in semiconductor.
12. Electron mobility is approximately three times the hole mobility, since the eective mass of electrons
in the conduction band is much higher than that of holes in the valence band.
13. At low impurity levels, the mobilities are mainly limited by carrier collisions with the lattice or
acoustic phonons. As doping concentration increases beyond 10
15
10
16
, collisions with the charded
(ionized) impurity atoms through Coulomb interaction become more and more important and the
mobilities decrease.
14. At high temperatures, the mobility tends to be limited by lattice scattering and is proportional
to T
3/2
, relatively insensitive to the doping concentraion. At low temperatures, the mobility is
higher, but is a strong function of doping concentration as it becomes more limited by impurity
scattering.
15. In the inversion layer of a MOSFET device, the current ow is goverened by the surface mobility,
which is much lower than the bulk mobility. This is mainly due to additional scattering mechanisms
between the carriers and the Si-SiO
2
interface in the presence of high electric elds normal to the
surface.
16. The linear velocity-eld relationship discussed above is valid only when the electric eld is not too
high and the carriers are in thermal equilibrium with the lattice. At high elds, the average carrier
energy increases and carriers lose their energy by optical phonon emission nearly as fast as they
gain it from the eld. This results in a decrease of the mobility as the eld increases until nally
the drift velocity reaches a limiting value, v
sat
10
7
cm/s. This phenomenon is called velocity
saturation.
6
17. Saturation velocity of holes is similar to slightly lower than that of electrons, but saturation for
holes takes place at a much higher eld because of their lower mobility.
18. For more highly doped material, low-eld mobilities are lower because of impurity scattering.
However, saturaion velocity remains essentially the same, independent of impurity concentration.
19. There is a weak dependence of v
sat
on temperature. It decreases slightly as the temperature
increases.
20. One of the key equations governing the operation of VLSI devices is Poissons equation. It comes
from Maxwells rst equation which in turn is based on Coulombs law for electrostatic force of a
charge distribution. Poissons equation is expressed in terms of the electrostatic potential, which
is dened as the potential energy of carriers divided by the electronic charge q.
21. Total current, which is the sum of drift and diusion current, is proportional to the gradient of the
Fermi potential instead of proportional to the electric eld. For a connected system of metals and/or
semiconductors in thermal equilibrium with no current ow, the Fermi level is at, i.e., spatially
constant, throughout the system. It is important to keep in mind that Fermi level dierence is the
driving force for current ow, much like voltage dierence drives currents in a circuit.
22. Since, the system is not in termal equilibrium, the Fermi level is not well dened. The electron
distribution function is no longer a function of energy only. It becomes asymmetric in the current
ow directios to favor population of the electronic states with a forward momentum. It is then
useful to consider a local Fermi level based on the local equilibrium state at any given point. So,
one can introduce separate Fermi levels for electrons and holes, respectively, and they are called
quasi-Fermi levels.
23. The electron denisity in the conduction band can be calculated as if the Fermi level is at E
fn
and
the hole density in the valence band can be calculated as if the Fermi level is at E
fp
. The gradient
of electron quasi-Fermi potential drives the electron current and the gradient of hole quasi-Fermi
potential drives the hole current.
24. Continuity equations are based on the conseration of mobile charge.
25. At thermal equilibrium, the generation rate is equal to the recombination rate and np = n
2
i
, the
mass-action law.
26. Under low-injection conditions, the recombination rate is inversely proportional to the minority-
carrier life-time which is in the range of 10
4
10
9
s, depending on the quality of the silicon
crystal.
27. The minority-carrier diusion length, which is the average distance a minority carrier travels before
it recombines with a majority carrier, is given by L =

(D ), where D is the diusion coecient of

minority carrier. Since diusion length is much larger than the active dimension of a VLSI device,
generation-recombination in general plays very little role in device operation. Only a few special
circumstances, such as CMOS latch-up, the SOI oating-body eect, junction leakage current, and
radiation-induced soft error, must the generation-recombination mechanism be taken into account.
28. In contrast to the minority-carrier lifetime, the majority-carrier response time is very short in a
semiconductor, which is typically on the order of 10
12
s. It is much shorter than most device
switching times.
29. Near the physical junction, the energy-bands are bent in order to maintain energy-band continuity
between the p-region and the n-region. The band bending implies an electric eld, E = d
i
/dx,
in this transition region. This electric eld causes a drift component of electron and hole currents
to ow. On both sides of the band-bending region, the energy bands are at and there is no electric
eld. These regions are referred to as the quasineutral regions.
30. The build-in potential,
i
, is proportional to the dierence between the energy bands on the p-side
and the corresponding energy bands on the n-side, q
i
= E
c(p-side)
E
c(n-side)
.
31. A region is called quasi-neutral if the net +ve and -ve charge densities are equal in their gradient
such that there is no electric eld in the region.
7
32. Abrupt junctions have step change in doping impurities. The abrupt-junction is reasonable for
modern VLSI devices, where the use of ion implantation for doping the junctions followed by low-
thermal-cycle diusion and/or annealing, results in junctions that are fairly abrupt. Besides, the
abrupt-junction approximation often leads to closed-form solutions which render the device physics
much easier to understand.
33. The electrostatic potential
i
(x) is independent of x in the uniformly doped quasineutral regions.
Within the band-bending region,
i
(x) changes from being E
ip
/q at the p-region end of the the
band-bending region to being E
in
at the n-region end of the band-bending region. Within the
band-bending region, the electron density drops very rapidly as
i
(x) changes, being equal to the
ionized donor density at the n-region end. Thus, the density of electrons within the band-bending
region is negligible compared to the density of ionized donors except for a very narrow region
adjacent the quasi-neutral n-region where q(
i

f
) is less than about 3kT. Similarly, within the
band-bending region, the density of holes is negligible compared to the density of ionized acceptors
except for a very narrow region adjacent to the quasi-neutral p-region.
34. A closed-form solution to Poissons equation can be obtained if the electron and hole densities
are assumed to be negligible in the entire band-bending region. This is called the depletion-
approximation.
35. The depletion-layer widths, x
p
amd x
n
, are dependent on the donor concentration N
d
on the n-side
and the acceptor concentration N
a
on the p-side, as well as on the applied voltage V
app
, across the
junction.
36. The depletion approximation is quite accurate for all applied voltages except at large forward
biases, where the mobile-charge densities are not negligible compared to the ionized impurity
concentrations in the transition region. Since transition region is not charge-neutral, it is also
referred to as the space-charge region or space-charge layer.
37. Total space charge inside the n-side of the depletion region is equal to the total space charge inside
the p-side of the depletion region.
38. The built-in potential represents an energy barrier limiting the ow of electrons from the n-side to
the p-side and ow of holes from p-side to the n-side. Under reverse bias, applied voltage increases
this barrier. This barrier is reduced under forward bias conditions.
39. A quasineutral region has a nite resistivity determined by its dopant impurity concentration.
When a current, I, ows in a region of nite resistivity, there is a corresponding voltage drop, or
IR drop, along the current path. If IR drop in the quasineutral regions are not negligible, then
V
app
should be replaced by V

app
.
40. A diode has rectifying current-voltage characteristics, being conducting when it is forward biased,
and non-conducting when it is reversed biased.
41. The depletion-layer capacitance of a diode is equivalent to a parallel-plate capacitor of separation
W
d
and dielectric constant
si
. Physically, this capacitance is due to the majority carriers at the
edges of the depletion layer, not the space charge within the depletion region, respond to changes
in the applied voltage.
42. When the density of mobile carriers is comparable to or larger than the densities of ionized donors
or acceptors, the boundaries of the space-charge region are no longer well dened.
43. Many modern VLSI devices operate at very high electric elds within the depletion regions of
some of their p-n diodes. In fact, the junction elds are often so high that determinental high-
eld eects, such as avalanche multiplication and hot-carrier eects, limit the attainable device
and circuit performance. To overcome the constraints imposed by high elds in a diode, device
designers often introduce a thin but lightly doped region between the n- and p-sides. Introduction
of a lightly doped layer between the n- and p-regions of a diode reduces the maximum electric eld
in the junction.
44. Simple and closed-form equations relating the electron and hole densities and currents to the applied
voltage can be obtained under these approximations
8
(a) Quasineutrality
(b) Low-level injection
45. For a forward biased diode, we have an excess of minority carriers at the boundaries of the quasineu-
tral regions. For a reverse biased diode, we have a depletion of minority carriers at the boundaries
of the quasineutral regions.
46. The current-voltage characteristics of a one-sided diode are determined primarily by the transport
of minority carriers in lightly doped side.
47. Minority carrier current is inversely proportional to the doping concentration. Thus, in a one-sided
diode, the minority-carrier current in the lightly doped side is much larger than that in the heavily
doped side. The diode current is dominated by the ow of minority carriers in the lightly doped
side of the diode, while minority-carrier current in the heavily doped side usually can be neglected
in comparision. Th eect of heavy doping can increase the minority-carrier curernt owing in
the lightly doped region is substantially. However, if the width of an emitter is not larger than
its minority-carrier diusion length, the minority-carrier current ow in the emitter may not be
negligible.
48. In a forward-biased n
+
p diode, both the excess minority-carrier concentration and the minority-
carrier current increase exponentially with the applied voltage.
49. The reverse bias causes a gradual depletion of electrons in the p-region near the depletion-region
boundary, and this electron concenration gradient causes an electron current to ow from the
quasineutral p-region towards the depletion region. This is the electron diusion component of the
leakage current in a reverse biased diode. It is also referred to as the electron saturation current
of diode. Total diusion leakage current in a diode is the sum of the electron and hole saturation
currents. Notice that the diusion leakage current is independent of the applied voltage.
50. A diode is wide-based if its base width if large compared to the minority carrier diusion length in
the base. For a forward-biased wide-base diode, the excess minority-carrier concentration decreases
exponentially with distance from the depletion region boundary, and the minority-carrier current is
independent of the base-width. For a reverse-biased wide-base diode, the minority-carrier electrons
it the base within a diusion length of the depletion-region boundary diuse towards the depletion
region, with a saturation current density which is independent of the base width.
51. A diode is called narrow-base if its base width is small compared to the minority-carrier diusion
length in the base. For narrow-base diode, both forward and reverse biases, the minority-carrier
current density in a narrow-base n
+
p diode increases as base width is reduced.
52. A diode has a shallow emitter if the minority-carrier diusion length in the emitter is comparable
to or smaller than the width of the emitter region. The width of the emitter region of a pn diode
is also referred to as the junction depth. Therefore, a shallow-emitter diode is also a pn junction
having an electrically shallow junction. When W/L in the emitter, the minority-carrier current in
the emitter increases very rapidly as the emitter depth decreases. Typical p diodes in modern
VLSI devices should be treated as shallow-junction diodes.
53. There are eective means for reducing the minority-carrier current in a shallow-emitter diode. For
example a shallow emitter can be contacted using a doped polysilicon layer instead of a metal or
metal silicide layer.
54. In practical silicon diodes, the space-charge region current is not negligible at reverse bias and low
forward-bias. For an n
+
p diode, high injection occurs when n
p
approaches N
a
where N
a
is
the acceptor concentration of the p-side. At high injection, IR drops in the quasineutral regions
can be signicant. The onset of high injection can be pushed to higher voltage by increasing N
a
.
The applied voltage V
app
reduced to V

app
= V
app
IR. The dierence between V
app
and V

app
is
contained in the ideality factor, m. When m is unity, the current is considered ideal. A forward
diode current is ideal except at very small and very large forward biases. The nonideality at small
forward bias is caused by the space-charge-region current. Space charge region current leads to
m 2. The nonideality with m 2 at very large forward bias is due to high injection eect, IR
drop. At intermediate voltages, we have 1 < m < 2.
9
55. Finite resistivity of the p- and n-regions results in voltage drops between the ohmic contacts and
the junction. Finite resistivity eect is important only at very large forward biases. At large biases,
it is not easy to clearly tell if the nonideality is caused by series resistance or by high injection.
It may be combination of both. However, when m > 2, we know that the series resistance eect
dominates because the high injection eect by itself has an ideality factor of no larger than 2.
56. Series resistance eects can be reduced by increasing the diode doping concentrations, particularly
the doping concentration of the base side of the diode. Increasing doping concentration also delays
the onset of high injection. Degradation of ideality factor is usually observable only at low forward
biases and only in diodes having signicant amounts of generation-recombination centers in the
space-charge region.
57. For a reverse-biased diode, the total leakage current is the sum of the space-charge-region satura-
tion current and the diusion saturation current. Temperature dependence of diusion saturation
current is dominated by the temperature dependence of the n
2
i
factor, which is proportional to
exp(E
g
/kT) where E
g
is bandgap energy. The space-charge-region leakage current, being pro-
portional to n
i
, has a temperature dependence of exp(E
g
/2kT). In othe words, the diusion
leakage current has an activation energy of about 1.1 eV while the generation-recombination leak-
age current has an activation energy of about 0.5 eV. Therefore, the diusion leakage current, due
to its larger activation energy, is usually larger than the generaion-recombination leakage current
(space-charge-region saturation current) at elevated temperatures.
58. The diusion leakage current is independent of reverse-bias voltage. The space-charge-region cur-
rent is proportional to the space-charge-layer width which increases with reverse-bias voltage.
59. There is a capacitance associated with the depletion layer of a diode. As the diode is switched
o (zero-biased or reverse-biased) to on (forward-biased), it takes some time before the diode is
turned on and reaches the steady state. This time is associated with charging up the depletion-
layer capacitor and lling up the p- and n-regions with excess minority carriers. Similarly, when a
diode is switched from the on state to o state, it takes some time before the diode is turned o.
This time is associated with discharging the depletion-layer capacitor and discharging the excess
minority carriers stored in the p- and n-regions. The minority-carrier response time, or dielectric
relaxation time, is negligibly short, on the order of 10
12
s.
60. As doping concentration of the lightly doped side of a one-sided p n junction increases, depletion
layer capacitance increases but depletion layer width decreases.
61. For a narror-base diode, all the minority carriers can travel across the base region without recom-
bining. The base-transit-time is equal to the average time for the minority carriers to traverse the
narrow base region.
62. Modern n p n bipolar transistors typically have base widths of about 0.1 m, and a peak base
doping concentration of about 210
18
cm
3
. The corresponding minority electron mobility is about
300 cm
2
/V-s. The base-transit-time is therefore less than 1 10
11
s, which is extremely short
compared with the corresponding minority-carrier lifetime on the order of 110
7
s. Recombination
is negligible in the base layers of modern bipolar transistors.
63. A time t = 0, the external bias is switched to a reverse voltage of V
R
. The excess electrons in the
base start ti diuse back towards the depletion region of the diode. Those electrons at the edge
of the depletion region are swept away by the electric eld in the depletion region towards the n
+
emitter at a saturated velocity of about 10
7
cm/s. The depletion layer width is typically on the
order of 0.1 m. The transit time across the depletion region is typically on the order of 10
12
s. Except for diodes of very narrow widths, this time is extremely short compared to the total
time for emptying the excess electrons out of the base region. Thus, as long as there are sucient
excess electrons in the base region, the reverse current is limited not by the diusion of excess
electrons but by the external resistor and has a value of I
R
V
R
/R and the slope (dn
p
/dx)
x=0
,
being proportional to I
R
, is approximately constant. At t = t
s
, the excess electrons have been
depleted to the point that the reverse current is limited by the diusion of electrons instead of by
the external resistor. The rate of voltage change across the junction increases. Finally, when all
the excess electrons are removed, the p n junction is completely o. The external reverse-bias
voltage appears entirely across the junction, and the reverse current is limited by the diode leakage
current.
10
64. Discharge time for a wide-base diode: A forward-biased diode discharges with a time constant
approximately equal to the minority-carrier lifetime, unless the reverse discharge current is much
larger than the forward charging current. It takes a long time to drain o the excess minority
carriers stored in a wide-base diode and turn it o. It is important to minimize excess minority
carriers stored in forward-biased diodes if these diodes are to be switched o fast.
65. Discharge time of a narrow-base diode: For a narrow base diode, recombination current can be
ignored. A narrow-base diode discharges in a time very small compared to
n
, lifetime of minority-
carrier electrons in p-region. The discharge time for a narror-base diode can be much shorter than
the base transit time. A complex but closed-form solution can be obtained in the large I
R
/I
F
ratio. A comples but closed-form solution can be obtained in the large I
R
/I
F
limit, which shows
that most of the charge has come out by about t
B
/3. The important point is that a forward-biased
narror-base diode can be switched o fast.
66. Diusion capacitance: Let us understand the diusion capacitance for an n
+
p wide-emitter
narrow-base diode, i.e., a diode where the depth or width of the n
+
emitte region is large compared
to its hole diusion length and the width of the p-type base region is small compared to its electron
diusion length. When forward bias is reduced, or when diode is switched to reverse bias, the
electron distribution evolves as a function of time. Part of the excess electrons diuses to the left
(back towards the emitter) and part of them diuses to the right. The opposing electron currents
suggest that the net charge moved through the external circuit in the discharge process is less than
the total stored charge. When ac voltage is applied across the diode, only those electrons located
suciently close to the depletion-region boundaries can keep up with the signal and get into and
out of the base. The exact amount depends on the signal freqency. Similarly, if we consider the
stored holes in the emitter, the signal-following holes in the n
+
emitter give rise to a hole current
component at the base end of the emitter region and in the external circuit. These signal-following
stored charges are responsible for the diusion capacitance. The 2/3 of the stored charge in the
narrow base and 1/2 of the stored charge in the wide emitter contribute to the diusion capacitance
of a forward-biased diode. The diusion capacitance of a one-sided p n diode is dominated by
the minority charge stored in the base of the diode. The diusion capacitance due to the minority
charge stored in the emitter is small in comparision. The eect of heavy doping, when included,
will increase the amount of stored charge and hence the diusion capacitance.
67.
11
Chapter 3
Chapter 3: MOSFET Devices
12
Chapter 4
Chapter 4: CMOS Device Design
13
Chapter 5
Chapter 5: CMOS Performance
Factuors
14
Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Bipolar Devices
15
Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Bipolar Device Design
16
Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Bipolar Performance
Factors
17
Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Memory Devices
18
Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Silicon On Insulator
19