Semiconductor Power Devices

This paper is a comprehensive review of the published literature dealing with the phenomenon of second breakdown in semiconductor devices and the problems it creates in the design, fabrication, testing, and application of transistors.

Second breakdown&#8212;A comprehensive review

Switching and breakdown in films

Simulations are used to characterize the single event transient current and voltage waveforms in deep submicron CMOS integrated circuits. Results indicate that the mechanism controlling the height and duration of the observed current plateau is the redistribution of the electrostatic potential in the substrate following a particle strike. Quantitative circuit and technology factors influencing the mechanism include restoring current, device sizing, and well and substrate doping.

Effect of Well and Substrate Potential Modulation on Single Event Pulse Shape in Deep Submicron CMOS

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on theory of thermal breakdown and continues with theory and experimental description of breakdown first in semiconductors and then in insulators. Thermal breakdown voltages on the application of pulses are larger than the steady state breakdown voltages. Information on the basic breakdown properties of many substances is imperfect and relatively few insulators have been investigated in detail. An average temperature of the breakdown events during vaporization was obtained in metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) samples by photographing the spectrum of discharges and comparing the intensities of spectral lines. The calculation of the breakdown strength by impact ionization requires the solution of the Boltzmann equation, considering the effects of applied field, phonon, and interelectronic collisions, ionizations, and recombinations on the free electron distribution function. The statistical breakdown events observed in the oxides may also be explained by the development of critical size avalanches, if it is assumed that this depends on particular transport and trapping properties of the holes and on field emission at the cathode.

Electrical Breakdown in Solids

High voltage diodes made of PνN (or PπN) structures sometimes fail by second breakdown when high voltage pulses are applied. The avalanche characteristics of PνN junction diodes are analysed and it is theoretically shown that they have negative resistance regions caused by the space charge effect of the carriers. Experiments on the second breakdown are also reported and it is concluded that the current concentration induced by the negative resistance may cause diode failure.

H. Egawa

Papers

Avalanche characteristics and failure mechanism of high voltage diodes