Material Science: Development Team

Material Science
Paper No. : 09 Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Module: 3.5 Impatt diode
Development Team
Prof. Vinay Gupta ,Department of Physics and Astrophysics,
Principal Investigator University of Delhi, Delhi
Dr. Monika Tomar ,Physics Department ,Miranda House

Paper Coordinator
University of Delhi, Delhi
Dr. Monika Tomar, Department of Physics, Miranda House University of Delhi, Delhi
Content Writer
Dr. Ayushi Paliwal, Department of Physics, Deshbandhu College, University of Delhi, Delhi
Prof. Vinay Gupta ,Department of Physics and Astrophysics,

Content Reviewer
University of Delhi, Delhi
Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Material Science
Impatt diode
Description of Module
Subject Name Material Science
Paper Name Semiconductor Materials and Devices
Module Name/Title Impatt diode
Module Id 3.5

Material Science
Impatt diode
Contents of this Unit
1. Introduction
2. OPERATION OF IMPATT DEVICES-PHYSICAL DISCUSSION
2.1 The Impact Ionization Process
2.2 Reverse Break-Down Voltage
2.3 Saturated Drift Velocity
2.4 Displacement Current
3. Diagram of p+-n Diode IMPATT Device Operation
4. DOPING PROFILES FOR IMPATT DIODES
5. Summary
Learning Objectives:
From this module students may get to know about the following:
 Operation of IMPATT devices

 p+n diode IMPATT device operation
 Doping profiles for IMPATT diode

Material Science
Impatt diode
1. Introduction
IMPATT (Impact Avalanche Transit Time) devices are solid state oscillators or amplifiers for microwave
and millimeter wave frequencies up to above 200 GHz, generally with high power output (for a solid
state device). Efficiencies as high as 25% have recently been obtained with GaAII devices, but the
traditional IMPATT is a silicon device with up to 15% efficiency. The basic principle involves a 1800
phase-delay of the current with respect to the voltage, which clearly will make the device exhibit a
negative resistance. Shockley (1954) had introduced this general idea, not yet involving impact
avalanching to produce the phase-shift. A number of different p-n-junction type structures are used today.
During operation, the diode is undergoing (controlled) reverse break-down. The history of the
development of the IMP ATT device has some similarities to that of the Gunn-device. Both were being
developed in parallel in the early 1960's, for example one Bell Laboratories group worked simultaneously
on both devices (DeLoach, 1976). In the case of the IMPATT, there was also a theoretical prediction of
one version of the IMP ATT operation, published in 1958 by W.T. Read (Read, 1958). The event
described above, resulted in the first publication regarding an IMPATT type oscillator (Johnston,
DeLoach and Cohen, 1965). Only a couple of months later, Read-type IMPATT operation was also
observed (Lee et al., 1965).
2. OPERATION OF IMPATT DEVICES-PHYSICAL DISCUSSION
2.1 The Impact Ionization Process
Reverse break-down is most conveniently first discussed for a p+-n diode, usually implemented with a
p+-n-n+ structure, see Figure 1.
Figure 1: Electric field versus position in a p+ -n-diode.

The corresponding energy band diagram for large reverse bias is given in Figure 2. The reverse current
consists primarily of holes which diffuse up to the potential barrier from the n-side, and then quickly
traverse the junction, accelerated by the very strong electric field there. A smaller number of electrons
cross the junction in the opposite direction, smaller because the p-side is more highly doped, and because
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Material Science
Impatt diode
it is the minority carriers which constitute the reverse direction current. The holes will become energetic
enough to be able to ionize an electron pair, somewhere in the depletion layer. This process requires
about 1.5 times the bandgap energy, i.e. about 1.6 eV for silicon.
Figure 2: Energy bands of a p+ -n-junction in reverse bias
The impact ionization will be able to sustain an avalanche if the probability that a carrier will cause an
ionization event on its transit of the depletion region is equal to 1.0 or higher, and under these
circumstances, the process will start to grow rapidly (in time) in the manner of an avalanche. The
avalanche condition can be expressed:
Here, a is the probability of impact ionization occurring in unit length of travel, or the "ionization rate".
The units are usually cm -1. To be more realistic, we must recognize that the ionization rates for electrons
and holes are not the same. Also, the ionization rates depend very strongly on the electric field. A typical
dependence is:
A generalized avalanche condition can be derived for the case of unequal rates for electrons and holes

Material Science
Impatt diode
By using (S.2b) and (S.2c), the effective a can be shown to be:
This value for < a > can be used with very accurate results for GaAs.
Due to the strong dependence of a on electric field, we find that the avalanching occurs almost
exclusively very close to the peak of the electric field (in Figure l). This region of the diode is termed the
"avalanche region". In a device with field distribution as in Figure l, the holes generated will drift to the
left into the contact and will be out of the picture as far as device operation is concerned, whereas the
electrons will drift to the right through the so called "drift region" of the device, see Figure 3.
Figure 3: Definition of avalanche and drift regions in a p+-n IMPATT diode.

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Material Science
Impatt diode
2.2 Reverse Break-Down Voltage
It is convenient to observe that the maximum field of the triangular field distribution in a p-n-junction
diode at breakdown is fairly independent of the doping and the type of junction. The explanation for this
fact is again the very high E-field dependence of the ionization-coefficient, Q. Thus, when the field has
reached a certain magnitude, then it becomes very easy to satisfy the avalanche condition when the
integral is taken over typical junction widths, and the field for which this happens is basically a universal
constant for the material. The reverse break-down voltage can now be derived in terms of the maximum
E-field at break-down, Em. The results are for the standard cases of a one-sided (p+ - n) diode, and two-
sided diode, respectively,
Note that the break-down voltage is inversely proportional to the doping in both cases. Typical break-
down voltages in the 10 to 100 volt range are obtained if the doping is of the order of 1016 to 1017cm-3
(on the low side in one-sided junctions). These widths are 10-20% of the width of the entire depletion
region, justifying the model, which assumes that the drift region occupies most of the depletion region.
2.3 Saturated Drift Velocity
The saturation velocity decreases as the temperature increases. It is important that the velocity is
almost independent of the electric field for the high fields which exist in IMPATT devices - this means
that we can regard the carrier velocity as essentially constant and equal to the saturation velocity
anywhere in the drift-region. The saturation velocity of electrons and holes in GaAs is somewhat
lower. The saturation velocity is essentially the same for electrons and holes. Its temperature-
dependence is given by:
where is the cm/sec and T is in °C.

Material Science
Impatt diode
2.4 Displacement Current
Due to the large amounts of rapidly moving electric charge in an IMPATT device, it is necessary to take
the displacement current into account. The avalanche gives rise to the "injected" current which is
localised to the avalanche region. Due to the nature of the avalanche process, the injected current is
concentrated toward the end of the first half period of the AC-voltage across the device. The time
dependence of the injected charge is therefore similar to a short pulse. As this pulse of charge drifts
through the drift region, we can model it with a constant charge which moves through a capacitor. In
general, the total current is continuous, and is represented by a displacement current in any plane of the
capacitor which does not contain the charge, as shown in figure 4. If the charge is moving with constant
velocity, then the total current is also constant in time until the charge has traversed the capacitor. We
can calculate the average current when the charge, q, moves across a capacitor of width, W, in a time at,
as
If the velocity of the charge is equal to the saturated velocity, s then the current becomes
Figure 4: An electron moving between two metal plates

3. Diagram of p+-n Diode IMPATT Device Operation
We are now ready to put the above facts together in a diagram (Figure 5). We assume that the E-field
consists of a DC component, adjusted so that reverse break-down just occurs, and an AC component,
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Material Science
Impatt diode
which is added uniformly across the device (compare the Gunn-device case, where the electric field
could not be uniform).
The structure of the device is shown in Figure 6. The E-field and voltage are positive when they
accelerate carriers in the positive z-direction, and the current is positive in the same direction as the
electric field (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Definition of positive directions for electron velocity, electric field, and current in an IMPATT
device.
Referring to Figure 5, the AC electric field is shown in the lowest set of curves, as a function of time.
In the top of the diagram, we see in the first "frame" the DC electric field distribution. As the AC field
component grows positive, the avalanche is initiated. The growth of the charge produced by the
avalanche is pictured in the second set of frames from the top. In the second frame (t = T/4), the AC field
is at its maximum, but the maximum avalanche charge injection does not occur until the third frame (t =
T/2), just before the AC voltage goes negative and drives the total voltage below the breakdown voltage.
In other words, the avalanche continues to grow as long as the electric field is larger than Em. As the AC
voltage becomes more negative, the avalanche injected charge drifts through the drift region, and the
device current, shown in the next set of frames, is constant with time until the charge reaches the right
contact. If we compare the two lowest sets of frames, we notice that the current has an approximately
square wave-form, being off for the first half period, and constant and positive during the second half
period, which represents the negative resistance which we sought.

Material Science
Impatt diode
Figure 5: Operation of an IMPATT device, illu6trating the electric field, charge density, current and A
C voltage for the device
The negative resistance arises as a result of three effects:
1) The delay of the maximum of the avalanche until it just turns off, i.e. by T/2 with respect to t =0.
2) The transit time delay of T /2 for the drifting charges in the drift region.
3) The effect of the displacement current, which produces a square current pulse from a short pulse of
injected charge. This factor effectively speeds up the onset of the current in the contact by T /2.
Taking into account all of the three above effects, we find a total delay of T/2 of the current with respect
to the voltage. Specifically, we see that the correct value of the transit time delay in the drift-region
should be about T/2. We can also calculate the estimated frequency of operation as follows (note that
there is a factor of two ratio of the transit times, in periods, for the IMPATT device compared with a
transit-time mode Gunn device.):
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Material Science
Impatt diode
As an example, a 10 GHz IMPATT device using silicon should have a drift region length of about 5
micron. We also find it useful to introduce the concept oftransit angle, defined as:
4. DOPING PROFILES FOR IMPATT DIODES

A great variety of doping profiles have been used for IMPATT diodes and a few are illustrated in Figures
6 to 8. The recent trend has been toward structures with very narrow (higher efficiency) avalanche
regions, such as the profile originally proposed by Read (1958). The "lo-hi-Io" structure has a uniform
field in the avalanche region, while the narrow clump of (donor) charge allows the field to decrease to
values well below Em immediately as the carriers enter the drift region, preventing any avalanche there.
Another popular structure is the double-drift one, which allows both electrons and holes to drift through
separate drift regions.
(a) (b)
(C) (d)
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Material Science
Impatt diode
Figure 6: (a) Schematic of IMPATT diode, (b) Distribution of doping, (c) electric field and (d) ionization
probability in a Read type IMPATT diode.
Figure 7: Distribution of doping, electric field and ionization probability in a p+-n (single drift) IMPATT
diode.
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Material Science
Impatt diode
Figure 8: Distribution of doping, electric field and ionization probability in a p-n+ (single drift) IMPATT
diode.
Figure 9: Distribution of doping, electric field and ionization probability in (a) an IMPATT diode device
with Hi-Lo structure, (b) and IMPAAT device with Lo-Hi-Lo structure
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Material Science
Impatt diode
5. Summary
 Operation of IMPATT devices: impact ionization process, reverse breakdown voltage, saturation
drift velocity and displacement current
 p+n diode IMPATT device operation
 Doping profiles for IMPATT diode
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Material Science
Impatt diode

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Material Science

Paper No. : 09 Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Dr. Monika Tomar ,Physics Department ,Miranda House

Prof. Vinay Gupta ,Department of Physics and Astrophysics,

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

 Operation of IMPATT devices

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Figure 1: Electric field versus position in a p+ -n-diode.

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Figure 2: Energy bands of a p+ -n-junction in reverse bias

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Figure 3: Definition of avalanche and drift regions in a p+-n IMPATT diode.

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

where is the cm/sec and T is in °C.

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Figure 4: An electron moving between two metal plates

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

4. DOPING PROFILES FOR IMPATT DIODES

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

Semiconductor Materials and Devices

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