Research note Incomplete ionization in a semiconductor and its implications to device modeling

The ionization of impurity atoms is an important process in determining the number of free carriers, and thus the conductivity and other physical properties, in semiconductors. In this paper, a detailed derivation for the ionization percentage of impurity atoms is given. Furthermore, to illustrate the errors associated with the conventional complete ionization assumption, the results are applied to the modeling of the current-voltage characteristics of a pj junction diode. Two-dimensional device simulations are included in support of the model. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.