Compact model of Zener tunneling current in bipolar transistors featuring a smooth transition to zero forward bias current

We present a physics-based compact model of Zener tunneling current, as it may occur in highly doped, reverse biased, base-emitter junctions of bipolar junction transistors. Our model features a smooth transition, at zero bias, to zero tunneling current in the forward bias regime. Implementation of identically vanishing forward bias tunneling current avoids non-physical contributions from the Zener tunneling model in the low forward bias regime, so as to support circuit simulations for ultra low power applications. Our implementation avoids loading computational resources during circuit simulations outside its range of physical validity. We discuss model parameter definition and parameter extraction. A verification of the model on typical modern industrial bipolar technology is presented.