A numerical estimate of transport properties in degenerate silicon p-n junctions

Magnitudes of the transport terms describing hole and electron motion in extrinsic degenerate silicon with large impurity gradients are calculated using Fermi-Dirac statistics. The absolute error between these transport terms using Boltzmann statistics and Fermi-Dirac statistics is tabulated for the reduced Fermi energy level from - 15 kT units to + 15 kT units. An accurate equilibrium state is assumed, and the effects of impurity scattering and electric field on the mobility are examined. The necessity for including impurity scattering in steady and transient states has been demonstrated. It was found necessary to maintain better than a 1:10⁶accuracy in the Fermi-Dirac integrals in order to obtain a highly accurate equilibrium state.