JUNCTIONS

5.3.2 Carrier Injection (S.M.)

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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

The minority carrier concentration on
each side of a p-n junction is varied with
the applied bias because of variations in
the diffusion of carriers across the
junction.
The
equilibrium
ratio
of
hole
concentrations on each side is given as:

With F.B. condition it becomes:

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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

This equation uses the altered barrier (V0 V) to
relate the steady state hole concentrations on the
two sides of the transition region with either
forward or reverse bias (V positive or negative).
For low-level injection we can neglect changes in
the majority carrier concentrations.
Although the absolute increase of the majority
carrier concentration is equal to the increase of
the minority carrier concentration in order to
maintain space charge neutrality, the relative
change in majority carrier concentration can be
assumed to vary only slightly with bias compared
with equilibrium values.
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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

With this simplification we can write the ratio of Eq. (526) to (5-27) as:

With forward bias, Eq. (5-28) suggests a greatly

increased minority carrier hole concentration at the
edge of the transition region on the n side p(x n0) than
was the case at equilibrium.
Conversely, the hole concentration p(x n0) under reverse
bias (V negative) is reduced below the equilibrium
value pn.
The exponential increase of the hole concentration at
xn0 with forward bias is an example of minority
carrier injection.
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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

As Fig. 5-15 suggests, a forward bias V results in a
steady state injection of excess holes into the n
region and electrons into the p region.
We can easily calculate the excess hole
concentration pn at the edge of the transition
region xn0 by subtracting the equilibrium hole
concentration from Eq. (5-28).

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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

From our study of diffusion of excess carriers in Section
4.4.4, we expect that injection leading to a steady
concentration of pn excess holes at xn0 will produce a
distribution of excess holes in the n material.
As the holes diffuse deeper into the n region, they
recombine with electrons in the n material, and the
resulting excess hole distribution is obtained as a
solution of the diffusion equation, Eq. (4-34b).
If the n region is long compared with the hole diffusion
length Lp, the solution is exponential, as in Eq. (4-36).
Similarly, the injected electrons in the p material
diffuse and recombine, giving an exponential
distribution of excess electrons.
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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

For convenience, let us define two new coordinates
(Fig. 5-15): Distances measured in the x-direction in
the n material from xn0 will be designated xn ;
distances in the p material measured in the -xdirection with xp0 as the origin will be called xp.
This convention will simplify the mathematics
considerably.
We can write the diffusion equation as in Eq. (4-34)
for each side of the junction and solve for the
distributions of excess carriers (n and p)
assuming long p and n regions:

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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

The hole diffusion current at any point xn in the n
material can be calculated from Eq. (4-40):

where A is the cross-sectional area of the junction.

Thus the hole diffusion current at each position x n
is proportional to the excess hole concentration at
that point.
The total hole current injected into the n material
at the junction can be obtained simply by
evaluating Eq. (5-32) at xn0:

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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

By a similar analysis, the injection of electrons into
the p material leads to an electron current at the
junction of:

The minus sign in Eq. (5-34) means that the

electron current is opposite to the xp-direction; that
is, the true direction of In is in the +x-direction,
adding to Ip in the total current (See Fig. 5-16).

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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

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5.3.2 Carrier Injection

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Case 1: Shockley Ideal Diode Approximation

If we neglect recombination in the transition region,
which is known as the Shockley ideal diode
approximation, we can consider that each injected
electron reaching at xp0 must pass through xn0.
Thus the total diode current I at xn0 can be
calculated as the sum of Ip (xn=0) and -In(xp=0).
If we take the +x-direction as the reference
direction for the total current I, we must use a
minus sign with In (xp) to account for the fact that xp
is defined in the -x-direction:

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Case 1: Shockley Ideal Diode Approximation

Equation (5-36) is the diode equation, having the
same form as the qualitative relation Eq. (5-25).
In the derivation it excludes the possibility that the
bias voltage V can be negative; thus the diode
equation describes the total current through the
diode for either forward or reverse bias.
We can calculate the current for reverse bias by
letting V = -Vr :

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Case 2: Charge Control Approximation

On average entire charge distribution in p or n
type SC recombines & replenished every n or p
second respectively.
The total positive charge stored in the excess
carrier distribution at any instant of time is:

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Case 2: Charge Control Approximation

This is the same result as Eq. (5-33), which was calculated
from the diffusion currents.
Similarly, we can calculate the negative charge stored in
the distribution n(xp) and divide by n to obtain the
injected electron current in the p material.
This method, called the charge control approximation,
illus- trates the important fact that the minority carriers
injected into either side of a p-n junction diffuse into the
neutral material and recombine with the majority carriers.
The minority carrier current (for example, I p(xn)) decreases
exponentially with distance into the neutral region.
Thus several diffusion lengths away from the junction,
most of the total current is carried by the majority carriers.

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Case 2: Charge Control Approximation

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Case 2: Charge Control Approximation

Calculation of the majority carrier currents in the two
neutral regions is simple, once we have found the minority
carrier current.
Since the total current I must be constant throughout the
device, the majority carrier component of current at any
point is just the difference between I and the minority
component (See Fig. 5-17).
For example, since Ip(xn) is proportional to the excess hole
concentration at each position in the n material [Eq. (532)], it decreases exponentially in xn with the decreasing
p(xn).
Thus the electron component of current must increase
appropriately with xn to maintain the total current I.
Far from the junction, the current in the n material
is carried almost entirely by electrons.
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SUMMARY
We can calculate the current at a p-n junction in two
ways (See Fig. 5-16): (a) from the slopes of the excess
minority carrier distributions at the two edges of the
transition regions and (b) from the steady state charge
stored in each distribution.
We add the hole current injected into the n material Ip(xn=0)
to the electron current injected into the p material In(xp=0),
after including a minus sign with ln(xp) to conform with the
conventional definition of positive current in the +xdirection.
We are able to add these two currents because of the
assumption that no recombination takes place within the
transition region. Thus we effectively have the total electron
and hole current at one point in the device (xn0).
Since the total current must be constant throughout the
device
(despite variations in the current components), 21I as
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described by Eq. (5-36) is the total current at every position