Simulation of high field resistive and absorption currents in semicrystalline polymer films

Transient nonlinear finite element analysis is used to compute effective conductivity, absorption current, etc. as a function of electric field in order to gain insight into the difference between resistive and capacitive field distributions, both during charging of a capacitor film to near breakdown and during the transition from capacitive to resistive field distribution at a constant, high average field. For a semicrystalline polymer, the resistive field distribution is characterized by much greater field in the crystalline regions than in the amorphous regions. The absorption charge tends to be relatively independent of the details of the models, for reasons which will be discussed