Junction recombination current in abrupt junction diodes

Abstract

A new, analytical method is presented for calculating the depletion-region recombination current for abrupt-junction diodes under forward bias. The method is appropriate when the recombination current is dominated by recombination through Shockley–Read–Hall centers at a single energy level whose density does not vary strongly with position through the device. The new model is systematically compared with earlier models and with the results of finite-element analyses using PC-1D. If it is reasonably assumed that PC-1D is the most accurate of the methods considered here, the others may be ranked according to their proximity to the PC-1D result. It is shown that the new method, despite its simplicity, yields results closer to PC-1D than the earlier models for many practical situations. In addition, it is shown that one existing model may be brought into agreement with the finite-element analysis by a simple modification of the limits of integration.