Breakdown voltage for planar devices with a single field limiting ring

In this paper a simple means for accurately predicting the breakdown voltage of planar devices with a single field limiting ring is presented. A large mass of theoretical data was generated and then reduced to a single plot which shows the fraction of the ideal breakdown voltage that can be attained with the use of a field limiting ring. This curve can be applied to devices with virtually any substrate doping, junction curvature, and surface concentration. The key to reducing this large amount of data to a single plot is the fact that the data is plotted as a function of a normalized radius of junction curvature which is a precise measure of the curvature effect for virtually any device. Experimental data on the breakdown voltage for 640 devices with single field rings encompassing 16 different separations between the main junction and the field ring are shown. The theoretical predictions are in excellent agreement with this data.