Diamond bipolar device simulation

Abstract

Diamond is not only known for being the hardest gemstone but also for being the semiconductor having the highest calculated figures of merit (FOM). This comes from the unique physical properties of this material. Thus, it is predicted that diamond should exceeds silicon carbide (SiC) and galium nitride (GaN) in terms of low loss device and better compromises for on-state resistance versus breakdown voltage. However, in practice the applications of diamond devices are still limited and the performances are still not reaching the theoretical predictions. The question is then how to predict and evaluate diamond device performances themselves and in their environment. One of the possible answer is by using finite element based softwares. Few reports exist on unipolar diamond device modeling, and none on diamond bipolar device. The main limitations come from the lack of parameters implemented in the simulation tools together with the difficulties for modeling wide band gap semiconductor, i.e. extremely low carrier concentrations. In this study, we present the results on the first simulation of a diamond bipolar junction transistor electrical characteristics. The validation of the simulation is the first step towards the prediction of the architecture and behavior of future diamond devices.