High Speed Devices and Circuits

Prof. K. N. Bhat
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

Lecture - 19
Causes of Non-Idealities in the Schottky Barrier Diodes
I-V Characteristics

We have been discussing the I-V characteristics of schottky barrier diode and when we
were doing that we arrived at the ideal characteristics and we have discussed. I will just
summarize what we said in last lecture.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:19)

We have seen, or experiments have shown that the I-V characteristics deviate from the
ideal characteristics. For example, the reverse current does not saturate, it will keep on
increasing. Forward I 0 e to power of, instead of V by Vt, it is V by nVt. That is less
increases less rapidly with voltage.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 01:51)

So we just also said, we considered only this current that is the thermionic emission
current. B C D is the various terms which were neglected. Out of that, we have seen B
and C yesterday, or in previous lecture. That is a hole injection into neutral region and
recombination, that we said is not going to matter much, we analyzed it making use of
law of the pn junction. Similarly generation recombination current, it is much smaller
compared to this particular current, thermionic emission. So we do not have to worry as it
is at least one or two hundreds of magnitude smaller in gallium arsenide.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 02:36)

Let us see, the other term that we have put it here (Refer Slide Time: 2:40), which is the
quantum mechanical tunneling. These two terms are negligible

(Refer Slide Time 02:47)

Other terms which are there are: image force lowering of the barrier, quantum mechanical
tunneling and insulating interfacial layer. These are the three things which we are going
to discuss today.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 03:00)

Now image force lowering, we have just discussed fairly in detail what it is going to be?

(Refer Slide Time: 03:08)

It is due to the negative charge when it comes close to the metal, its mirror image is on
the other side. The charges induced on this plane can be the effect of that on this charge
can be obtained by considering the image of this charge there, its simplification, it works
out very well. Otherwise you have to take… you do not know how the distribution is, but
the entire effect can be accommodated by putting the mirror image here. That means
 

actually this charge experience the force, which is actually equal to q square by 16 pi
epsilon x squared, where x is the distance.

(Refer Slide Time 03:54)

As we go nearer this charge, the energy and the force both of them keep on increasing
negatively. That is why energy is integral of that. I am just going through this quickly
because we have discussed it yesterday. That is the energy integral of the force. q squared
by 4 pi epsilon x, instead of x square. Potential we are talking of the electronic potential
that is actually minus. So what we are just trying to point out is, if I move from here to
here (Refer Slide Time: 04: 32), the electronic potential is that quantity, that is 16 pi
epsilon or epsilon 0 into x.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 04:39)

As far as this field is concerned plus there and minus there for this, negative charge and
plus charge. So field is in that direction, it moves the energy of the electron lower
negative as you go towards the metal surface. That is why we are actually talking of
electronic energy and electronic potential. The energy level and electron potential will be
following the same path. If energy level is dropping down like that, the electron potential
will also drop down like that. These are lower energy for electron. In fact if you recall the
0 energy is there and all other energies are negative. So, that is what we have plotted
there.

If you look into that, (Refer Slide Time: 05:25) that is the one which is going down in
this fashion. Now in the absence of image force potential, (Refer Slide Time: 05:34) this
is the image force potential psi, we usually plot the energy band diagram like this. In fact
that is the variation of the electronic potential or variation of electron energy. How to
obtain that? You just have the depletion layer there. We call it here as e external because this
one is due to its image itself, but this field is due to this depletion layer. If there is no
depletion layer, this would have been only the potential. Because of depletion layer
present, there is additional external force acting on the electron that is actually given by
this. That is electric field e external which is given by e peak into 1 minus x minus by w D .
That is what we put here. That is electric field we call it as e external . This is regular
 

depletion field we are talking of. And psi potential is actually integral of that. In fact in
my last lecture I just left out this (6:36) but this 2 is there. Now, what we do is, what we
trying to find out is, that there are two potentials, that is potential due to this image psi if
and the potential due to this depletion layer, which we called as e external . The total
potential is sum of these two. Now, what I have done here is to simplify matters I just
neglected the second term, this term. You can neglect the second term so long as x by w D
is very small compared to 1. We are actually interested in the potential variation just near
the boundary.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:22)

Because we are interested in seeing what is the effect of this image force potential and the
external potential, add this and this. The sum of the two is given by, if I approximate the
external potential by this way (Refer Slide Time: 07:48) e peak into x, then, you have got
these two terms. You add up those two, that is, you can call it as delta phi that is the
potential with respect to that point or total phi itself, better call it as total potential. The
potential is sum of the two. Whatever approximation that we have made here will be true
if this x m is small compared to the total depletion layer width. We will see that is really
true. The peak occurs very close to surface in the order of 10 to 15 armstrongs compared
to 0.3, 0.4 micron of depletion layer. That is why this approximation is quite good; we are
talking just… In this diagram it does not look so, but it is actually very small. What we
 

want to find out is what the total variation potential is? More than that, what we are
interested is what the peak value here is? Because after all maybe I can explain here,
(Refer Slide Time: 08:58) this potential is varying like that. That is the external potential
due to depletion layer. This potential is like this. Total potential is this plus that that is
this one. In this portion, suppose you consider this as 0 and this is negative, this follows
that and then if you go down here that is 0 and this total potential is 0 here. That is why
the variation is like that. To find out this value here, what we do is add up the two and we
know that it goes to a maximum differentiate this term with respect to x and when you
differentiate with respect to that what you get?

(Refer Slide Time: 09:43)

You get, x is equal to x is x maximum that is root of that, the simple differentiation. So, this
becomes square 1 by x squared, this x goes off. The location of this particular peak
electric field is actually given by this quantity. Now once you do that, what you want to
find out is, how much is this difference on (Refer Slide Time: 10:12), top to that point,
which we call it as delta phi Bn .
 

(Refer Slide Time: 10:25)

Let me go to the board and show that to you. The actual potential, now instead of being
like this it is like this (Refer Slide Time: 10:28); It is like that. So, let me when we draw it
slightly better because that is very close by. This entire potential now, instead of being
like this, it will be now like this. Now, actually this quantity is delta phi Bn. Why do you
call it delta phi Bn ? Because, this is the potential barrier which would have been present,
but now, because the barrier does not go all the way up to that point it goes only up to
this point. As a result, there is a reduction in the phi Bn . This is called the image force
lowering effect of the barrier height by that amount. How much is that amount? That is
same as this potential. Please remember, the potential we are drawing, taking this as 0
with respect to that how much is that thing. The psi that we put there is the psi with
respect to that because that was 0 there and that was psi image force. This is, if I take it as
0 that is the potential. If I find what is the psi value here that straight away gives me delta
phi Bn . How do you find psi value their? Add up the two and substitutes that.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 11:57)

Let me just write that down here. We have got psi is equal to minus e peak into x minus q
divided by 16 pi epsilon r epsilon 0 into x. We have also seen that… So, psi maximum will be
what, when both of them are equal? See, one is coming like this other one coming like
that, the peak will correspond to the point and both are equal. That is actually twice e peak
into x m . Substitute value of this quantity we have found out the point at which it is
maximum. In fact we can verify that just going through that. That is the value. Substitute
for these quantity from the expression for x m . Let me not right down that, because you
already have wrote that. All that I am doing is we are substituting this x m which we have
determined as… by differentiating we have determined as this quantity (Refer Slide
Time: 13:15).
 

(Refer Slide Time: 13:15)

So, substitute in that equation phi max is equal to phi c into x m . So, you do that, all that you
have to do is multiply this quantity by 2e peak . So, 2 goes inside this square root that
becomes 4. 4 divided by 16 and that is 4 here. You are multiplying this by e peak , the
square root of e peak is their below so, that becomes proportional to e peak . All that we are
doing is that. Hope it is alright. What we are doing is (Refer Slide Time: 13:58) x m that is
actually minus 2e peak into square root of q divided by 16 pi epsilon r epsilon 0 into e peak . So
this becomes square root of that; this goes inside; this becomes 4. That is how we get that
particular term. The key thing to remember here is that this potential I called it as delta
phi maximum that is this quantity. What you have computed is psi; psi is the delta psi maximum .
May be unnecessarily I have introduced one more term there just differentiate this related
to this barrier. The barrier maximum reduction is delta that; that is delta phi b the actual
barrier is this much. So if the actual barrier is this much, the electrons can go from one
end to other end very easily. The current can get affected that what we trying to point out.
Let us just take look at the effect of this particular barrier lowering.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 15: 14)

The delta phi Bn is a value of phi at x m , we have determined that is proportional to square
root of peak electric field. Now before we go into that, we have derived this by taking the
e external is e peak into x. Let us see whether it is valid at x equal to x m . For that you must
find out how much x m is. Let me just give you some numbers their.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:00)

How much is the value? Say let us just take this, x m is equal to square root of q divided
by 16 pi epsilon r into epsolin 0 e peak . All that we have to prove is what is the value of e peak
 

in the depletion layer? See e peak corresponds to that, this peak (Refer Slide Time: 16:41)
field that will be roughly 10 to power of 5 volts per centimeter or 10 volts per microns. If
you go to 20 volts per microns you may have breakdown. That is why giving that number
less than that, but close to that; 10 volts per micron that is 10 to power 5 volts per
centimeter. You substitute on to this with epsilon taken as 12.8, 8.8 etc., this is
approximately about let us say 20 armstrongs. I can just plug in and see numbers. This is
about 20 armstrongs; 2 nanometers. What I am telling is because of that, this peak occurs
very close to surface; this x m is very small compared to W D . So our assumption that, in
the region up to this point (Refer Slide Time: 17:56), this potential is linear is very much
valid. By deriving at this expression for delta phi Bn , we took e external is equal to e peak into
x. We are talking of that is only up to x equal to x m . x m is just very small compared to
depletion layer, so that is valid. We are justified in doing that. You are not assuming that
the electric field is constant really but we have actually seen that potential is very linearly
up to that point. Now other thing that we would like to see is how much will be this
barrier lowering? We should be worrying about that. After all we have thrown out other
numbers with the hole injection etc, because they were all not comparable to J 0 etc.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:53)

Let us take a look at how much delta phi Bn is in order of magnitude? delta phi Bn is
actually equal to root of q e peak divided by 4 pi epsilon r epsilon 0 ; this is right here (Refer
 

S;lide Time: 19:25). Delta phi Bn is that number. Now what you do is substitute for this
e peak . It will be about 10 to power of 5 volts per centimeter e peak you have taken that. A
depletion layer width is something like 0.3 micron for about 10 to power of 16 doping.
For this situation, this turns out to be substituting all these value something like 10 to
power of 5 volts per centimeter. If I take substitute for epsilon r is 12.8 for gallium
arsenide; 12 for silicon; epsilon 0 is 8.854 into 10 to power of minus 14 farads per
centimeter. Substitute all that you get in this example about 35 milli electron volts. That
is about 35 milli electron volts. That is not negligible because after all the J 0 value that
we talk off is proportional to e to power of minus phi Bn by V t . So if that were phi Bn0 and
if it is 700 milli volts, this is 35 milli volts. We will say 35 milli volts are small compared
to 700 milli volts. But if you take e to the power of that quantity, the currents are
proportional to e to power of minus phi Bn by Vt. If it is 25 milli volts reduction, it is e to
power 1 which is 2.7. So the current is different by magnitude of 2.7 for 25 milli volts. So
even if we are talking about this 10 milli volts change, that J 0 will keep on changing.
Because it is exponentially dependent on phi Bn , so any change in phi Bn is reflected on J 0 .

So now whatever changes you see in the reverse bias and forward bias are manifestations
of delta phi Bn that is effectively J 0 changing. So what is done is let us see how it affects
in the case of forward bias? In the forward bias case what happens to delta phi Bn ? delta
phi Bn depends upon e peak ; if delta phi Bn increases what about the phi Bn ? Go back to this
diagram and see, if this increases phi Bn falls. In forward bias case what happens to e peak ,
as I keep on increasing the forward bias voltage what happens to external state? It
reduces. When you forward bias the depletion layer collapses. So peak electric field falls.
When you forward bias and if it falls, delta phi Bn reduces; if e peak falls delta phi Bn
reduces. If that happens phi Bn increases. So starting from 0 bias, we take 0 bias as some
phi Bn . Let us take the J 0 corresponding to that phi Bn . From there it will either go up or go
down.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 23:25)

What we are telling is even at 0 bias the value that you have is not the same thing, it is
different. From that point onwards and it will go up or down depending upon whether
you have forward biasing or reverse biasing. If forward bias electric field falls, therefore
this falls so that goes up and phi Bn increases. So if phi Bn increases what happens to J 0 ? J 0
reduces. Now, usually we write the expression for the forward characteristics as J is equal
to J 0 e to power V by V T minus 1. Now what is done here is to take into account the
entire characteristics. You keep J 0 constant. Whatever changes that takes places is J 0 you
absorb into that term. When you forward bias, the value of J 0 actually what happens? It
decreases because barrier rate increases. That decrease in J 0 , if you put n is equal to 1 and
you have to keep on changing J 0 and that decrease in J 0 will reflect in J 0 increasing as
fast as e to power of V by V T . So if I say J 0 is changing, it is reducing. The implication is
current does not increase as much as it would be.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 25:00)

See for example let me remove that temporarily. If I write J is equal to J 0 e to the power
of V by V T minus 1, I get a characteristic which is varying like this and J versus V, if J 0
were constant but if J 0 is going on falling as we increase the forward bias because peak
electric field is falling. If J 0 is falling slightly, for a given voltage, this current will be
lower. So, you will get actually the current which is slightly lower all through cases.
Strictly it is slightly deviated from this particular curve or slightly from ideal exponential
curve value. So this reduction is taken into account and you assume that this is constant,
absorb that into that factor n (Refer Slide Time: 25:54), this is sort of fur gee. You are
just cooking up a number n there, which will be greater than 1 and so current will
increase slower than what it would be from the ideal. The entire effect is due to J0 falling.
But you keep J 0 constant corresponding to 0 bias and then say that there is a n which is
larger than 1 that is the non-ideality. This term is quite definitely more than 1 because the
delta phi Bn from the 0 bias case is always 5 milli volts, 10 milli volts of that order and
that will go on changing. It may vary from 1 milli volt, 2 milli volt, 3 milli volt, 4 milli
volts like that, but it affects totally. What about reverse bias? It will show up much more.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 26:45)

Reverse bias and what about the peak electric field, it increases. The depletion widens, it
increases and if it increases we can see from here (Refer Slide Time: 26:57) delta phi Bn
actually increases. If delta phi Bn increases, phi Bn falls. So as we go on keeping reverse
bias, the delta phi Bn goes on increasing and phi Bn goes on falling. So this keeps on falling
(Refer Slide Time: 27:10). It is e to power minus and so if this keeps on falling, J R keeps
on increasing. This will be much more dominant in this case because if you have a 25
milli volts change in the phi Bn , which is quite possible because the peak fields are more
increasing quite a bit, where reverse current can be doubled. That is why we get the
reverse saturation current, not saturating, but keeping on increasing. So both the I-V
characteristics in the forward direction and also in the reverse direction instead of being
like this, this curve (Refer Slide Time: 27:55) will keep on increasing not due to
generation recombination but due to image force lowering effect of the barrier. So barrier
height keeps on falling. Now we are in trouble if you have devices made in certain
portion of device, if there are large fields reverse current will dominate quite a bit. It will
leak through those portions because of this image force lowering. Now let us see what
other thing is there on here. I hope this explains as a dominant phenomenon for deviation
from ideality.
 

(Refer Slide Time 28: 38)

This is just a formula which I have just put here. All that we have done here is delta phiBn
is q by this quantity and this whole thing within a square root sign is peak electric field.
This peak electric field is let me just put down here. This is for computing numbers that is
all.

(Refer Slide Time 29:09)

This peak electric field is q N D W D divide by epsilon r epsilon 0. V bi minus V in the

forward bias case, this is negative. If V is reverse bias, this is adding; that is actually
 

equal to q N D W D square by 2 epsilon r epsilon 0 . What we do is substitute that from here.

Therefore this is equal to what? So,W D is the standard formula (Refer Slide Time:
29:50). That is W D . When you put it here, e peak becomes square root of, substitute from
here to there, it becomes equal to root of, this and this cancle there, so q N D , into V bi
minus V divided by epsilon r epsilon 0 into there is a two term. That term that is 2. So all
that I have done is whatever I have written on the board there that is a square root term.
Delta phi Bn is square root of q by this quantity into e peak that e peak is this quantity and so
the formula looks big but it is actually a simple formula where we have substituted for
peak electric field from the well-known law of junction. Then when we will do that
together it is a square root of 2 to the power 4 and all that comes because this is square
root of to the power of 4.

So delta phi Bn is actually a function of V to the power of 1 by 4th and it does not vary
directly as V not as square root of V but it is 1 by 4th total potential. If it is forward
biased V bi minus V and V is minus V R, V bi plus V R that keeps on increasing. So, from
here it is very evident that, delta phi Bn will keep on increasing if V is minus V r , if V is
forward biased, this quantity goes on decreasing, delta phi Bn goes on decreasing.
Decrease of course will be small in the forward bias case. The impact of will not be too
much. So you will get of ideality factor 1 you may get 1.05, 1.06 that is all we get. We
are making so much fuss about that but you really have to make fuss about it in the
reverse bias, because that current will shoot up. In fact we have seen when you do not
take care of some of these things when you make devises you get a schottky barrier
which is extremely leaky.
 

(Refer Slide Time 32:58)

So now let us take one more phenomena because these two actually, the image force
lowering effect and the quantum mechanical tunneling effect join hands together to spoil
the reverse characteristics. Now if you recall what is this quantum mechanical tunneling?
This is the fourth phenomena that we are discussing now, the causes for ideality.

(Refer Slide Time 33:27)

In fact by now you must have understood that the non-ideality is more dominating in the
reverse direction than in the forward. Forward, there is a factor n coming up and it is
 

slightly more than 1. It will not be 1, 2, 3 and all that is just 1.05, 1.06 of that order
because of these effects. Bu it can kill if you do not take care of those peak electric fields.
If there is field crowding somewhere, in the junction region, if there is any crowding that
e peak will go up, the crowding effect. That e peak goes up; the reverse current will get
affected drastically because barrier height will be reduced drastically. After all, barrier
height will get reduced more and more if the field is higher. So any field crowding effect
or concentration of field will reduce the barrier height in the reverse bias direction and it
will increase the leakage current drastically.

Similarly this quantum mechanical tunneling, this is also dominant mostly in the reverse
bias. This is due to the electron which is crossing this barrier, where it is thin. If you take
the barrier, if it is thin here goes on away from the junction, the barrier is becoming
thicker and thicker. In this portion if the electron has energy here, in fact there are a lot of
electrons which have energy at this portion from here to up there are electrons occupying.
So, at this energy there is sufficient number of electrons. Some of them can cross here
because of tunneling effect. This is quantum mechanical tunneling in the sense, there is a
probability that good chance that electrons can cross that. I am not getting into those
quantum physics but that is what happens.

Now the width of this barrier depends upon the electric field. If the electric field is large,
this will vary steeply. The slope of this gives the electric field. Between these two curves,
this is at thermal equilibrium or forward bias; whereas, the second curve is at reverse
bias. So when the reverse bias is there, the width of the barrier becomes smaller. So
chance of tunneling is more if there is more reverse bias or the chance of reverse bias is
more, if the peak electric field is more. If the electric field is more this is steeper. So
whatever effect which makes the electric field more will decrease the barrier width there
and if it decreases the barrier width there, you will have reduction over there. Let us just
take a look at that is that. Is the point clear?
 

(Refer Slide Time 36:51)

Finally, what we are telling here is, let us get down to the practical things now, so both
the effects together will effect if they join hands. Quantum mechanical tunneling is
dominant more and more when the field is high. Image force lowering will become more
and more if the electric field is high. So both of them become more and more when
electric field is high and definitely it is going to affect the reverse bias condition.

Let us look at the junction which is made like that. Particularly, if you take a n type
material and this shaded region here, that is the depletion layer. In this portion where the
metal is put directly below, in that portion there is a depletion layer which is flat. Now,
when you go to the edge, there is a curvature and the depletion layer width on edge is
smaller compared to depletion layer width here. It is much more so if there is an
accumulation layer here. What I put here is some accumulation layer here, which can be
present. There can be accumulation layer that is n becoming n plus there, if there are
some positive charges on the surface. It can be contamination or even if you have some
oxide there, it can give rise to positive charges but whether the positive charge is there or
not. That is, whether the accumulation layer is there or not, the depletion layer crowding
effect is there. Let me just draw that once here just to make it more emphatic.
 

(Refer Slide Time 38:41)

What I am doing is, I have this n type semiconductor on which I just put this metal; that
is a metal here, which forms a schottky barrier. What we are talking of now is the
depletion layer here will be practically flat, if this width were going like this, then it
would have not been that much of a problem but there will be crowding here. Because
field lines will all is like this in this portion; whereas, from here, there will be need time
crowding there; whether you have an n accumulation layer or not there will be crowding
effect here.

So now what we are telling is just like any power device we usually see that wherever
junction curvature is there you will get the field crowding. Instead of junction, you have
an abrupt ending here. As a result, there will be crowding effect here, field crowding. The
moment you have field crowding here what happens? E peak is high there. When e peak is
high, both the effects come into picture, the quantum mechanical tunneling due to that
extra current and image force lowering is more due to that J 0 becoming high. Both of
them join hands together to increase the current here. So if you make a device like this,
just put a metal on silicon and make a schottky barrier you end up with the characteristics
like this. Because of this crowding, you end up with a characteristic which is very bad.
 

(Refer Slide Time 40:55)

I-V will be something like that. It is a very highly leaky device, so you would not like to
see it or you would not like to show it to anybody. That is the state of affairs. In fact I
remember when I made my first schottky. I did it like that. After looking into the theory
of this what we realized is, you must cut down the field there. If you cut down that field
somehow near the edge of the depletion layer you can bring this back into this. One of the
methods that are used is shown here.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:22)

 

This is all what I have been explaining that is W DN here in normal direction is smaller
compared to this depletion layer width W DP (Refer Slide Time: 41:34) all that is bringing
in the crowding effect. So, I said here W DN field is higher near the surface causing
enhanced quantum mechanical tunneling and image force lowering effect. In
consequence n value in a forward bias mode is function of voltage and reverse current in
the reverse bias mode, J R or I R keeps on increasing that is the curve we have shown there.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:03)

This is off course a typical curve that we get. What I have plotted here on the board
(Refer Slide Time: 42:08) is shown here in typical devices that people have seen. You
can see in this portion the current keeps on increasing, initial to the image force lowering
dominant. But when you go to larger values of the electric field, larger reverse bias and
the quantum mechanical tunneling takes over. Virtually, it looks like a breakdown like in
zener diode that is what happening, it is tunneling. So this portion is quantum mechanical
tunneling; this portion is image force lowering effect. So both together is very bad news,
in the sense, you get a poor diode.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 42:45)

How to overcome that? The ideality factor n is bringing closer to 1. You do not have to
worry so much about the ideality factor, so what if it is just 1.01, 1.02 but what you will
be more concerned will be reverse current. They can be overcome by two typical
methods which are used in practice are: one is actually the guard ring, consisting of a p
plus layer put around that; other one is the field plate. Both of them reduce the field kept
in that portion. Both of them try to reduce the field here because that is the one which is
increasing and it is a cause of increase in the reverse current due to barrier height
lowering and due to quantum mechanical tunneling, which are due to the thick electric
field increase.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 43:44)

I will just skip this for the time being. Let us come back to this afterwards. That is the
fifth phenomena which has some effect in the forward characteristics not in the reverse.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:56)

This is the p-type guard ring or p plus guard ring. You can see the plot here shows the
metal here; this is the oxide; this is the metal put over top of that and schottky is only
here. This is actually a schottky which is shorting and the junction is shorted out here
 

through this hole. Now how does it help? As far as this diode is concerned, I will just
draw that on the board to make a bit clearer.

(Refer Slide Time 44:46)

What you do is that the depletion layer is here, and I want to remove the crowding effect
and so just put this adjacent to that near p plus guard ring and both are connected
together. If you see the diagram, both are shorted together. When I apply voltage here,
the depletion layer is formed here. In the absence of this, it would have crowded down
like this. There would have been crowding effect. Now there is no crowing effect in this
portion and depletion layer moves like that. The depletion layer actually spreads like that.

As far as schottky barrier is concerned, it is being parallel and there is no crowding. All
the field lines are vertical. As far as schottky barrier is concerned there is no change in
the peak electric field, everywhere it is same thing governed by the one dimensional law.
You do not have the increase in the reverse current in that portion, in the schottky diode
portion. You will say there is crowding effect coming up here, but now the crowing effect
is in the pn junction. The crowing effect in the pn junction; the leakage currents in pn
junction are much smaller than that of schottky diode. So you have shifted the crowding
effect from the schottky barrier to the pn junction. In the pn junction, even if the field is
higher, leakage currents are much smaller than that. Here what we have done is, shifted
the crowding effect from the schottky to the pn junction. The current in the pn junction
 

even when its peak electric field is higher is much lower than that of schottky. When you
do that you get characteristics which are close to ideal flat. We have seen this. This is a
real hard truth about this is the leakage here is what was like that, due to leakage there
has shifted up there. Other method which is popular is… Team is to prevent the crowding
taking place whatever be the force.

(Refer Slide Time: 47:23)

This is the field plate structure. If I terminate it here, I would have had the crowding here.
Now what I do is, take the metal over the oxide. See you have got a metal here and you
have got the oxide and this is the semiconductor. Now, because it is going over the oxide,
this portion where it would get crowding here, that voltage gets shared between the oxide
and semiconductor. If you see here very carefully, the depletion layer width is wide here
and it becomes narrower here like that. I will just draw that here for clarity further.
 

(Refer Slide Time: 48:21)

You do not do anything here; all that you do is having an oxide over which this metal will
go. So this is N-type region. So that is the metal region. This type of thing people do with
splits in power devices where you cut, where ever there is crowding. If crowding is there,
take the metal over the oxide. Now when I apply voltage here, reverse bias, depletion
layer will be here like this because the total voltage drops across the silicon; whereas, if
you go to this side, metal oxide semiconductor, lot of voltage drop into this depending
upon how much thick it is. So if I add the metal going all the way up to over here it
would have gone like that but because part of the voltage goes into the oxide this is shift
down here. Instead of crowding and coming like this, it is spread out. So depletion layer
actually is spread out like that, so that you do not have the crowding effect. The moment
you do not have the crowding effect there is leakage current here is reduced. We have
seen this also reduces current drastically. In fact this is simple to make. Growing oxide,
open a window, put a metal which is bigger than a window that cuts down leakage
drastically.
 

(Refer Slide Time 50:02)

This in practice you need to make provision for reducing the field crowding, which
would give rise to large current, particularly in the reverse direction due to quantum
mechanical tunneling effect and image force lowering effect.

(Refer Slide Time: 50:28)

So one last thing I want to discuss here is the Effect of 5, it is not so important but it is
being talked of sometimes. So out of the different effects which effect the ideality, we
 

have seen image force lowering and quantum mechanical tunneling these are the two
which really affect particularly in the reverse bias direction. Forward bias direction also
will effect because whatever affects this barrier height, additional current, that will affect
that. Now the other one is actually insulating layer thickness of delta. I have a thin layer
of insulator which is always present due to some native oxide etc that causes slight
problem. We have seen it at the beginning, the voltage whatever is present gets shared
between that insulating layer and the semiconductor, just like this case (Refer Slide Time:
51:16). If I apply voltage here, that gets shared. What you are talking of is actually a layer
here; a thin layer present here.

(Refer Slide Time 51:43)

Now let us say, all those effects are overcome by the build plate etc. You put a metal here
and what ever changes in voltage you make particularly in forward direction impact is
much more reverse direction and it is not going to affect because it is going to cut down
leakage current if at all in the region. In forward direction what happens is, when I apply
a voltage here v that gets shared between this and this. The voltage that goes to this layer
is very small, decause it is after all 5 armstrongs or 10 armstrongs. Its current can tunnel
through that and you have got some voltage droping across that. Now what happens is,
when I have a delta V, when I increase the voltage in the forward direction by delta V, I
expect the current to increase by e to power delta V by V T , but it would not increase by
 

delta e to power delta V by V T because that delta V goes completely to the depletion
layer. You will have e to power delta V by Vt, but part of it goes to 1 milli volt out of 10
milli volts. The increase in current is not e to power of delta V by V T , but it is delta V by
n V T where n is greater than 1. That is the reason. If you have an insulating layer there;
you get a loose ideality factor to some extent.

In fact in the forward direction apart from the image force is lowering and quantum
mechanical tunneling, quantum mechanical tunneling to less extent that plays role in
reverse bias. More than these two terms, it is this layer which plays role. If you get1.1,
1.5etc, the ideality factor, then you can say there is a thin layer definitely. If you get 1.01,
1.02, you do not have a thin layer. So this particular quantity V (Refer Slide Time: 53:28)
applied voltage is shared between insulating layer V i and the depletion layer V D . Delta V
will be delta V D plus delta V i . If the insulating layer thickness is 0 delta V i is small and
you get ideal factor. In fact I am not deriving this we can get explicit relations between to
get the value of n from the I-V characteristics. From the value of n, we can actually find
out what is the interface state density. I am not going through that because it involves bit
more derivations. May be for time being let me skip that thing. That is why the factor n
comes here. So, delta V is not proportional current to e to power delta V by Vt, but it is
less than that. That is why that n comes into picture.

(Refer Slide Time: 54:23)

 

Finally, what we have seen the summary of all is these non-ideality factors is
recombination generation current, it may have composite forward characteristics and
non-saturation in I R in some cases. If you take silicon, it can affect to some extent
because the J due to the thermionic emission and this, the difference is less. So it can
become more dominant or it will show up as you go to larger reverse currents. But in
gallium arsenide, you do not have to worry. Image force lowering makes ideality factor
greater than 1 not too much 1; too much more than 1, 1.05, 1.04 in that order and reverse
saturation current will not saturate. It will become worse due to the tunneling, quantum
mechanical tunneling. Because that comes up if there is field crowding is present. The
peak electric field goes up with reverse bias so that is why it is important only in the
reverse bias conditions. So, both the things together are very important in the reverse bias
directions. That is what I am trying to point out.

(Refer Slide Time: 55:50)

If you see the insulating layer presence, you have the insulating layer that will actually
affect the forward characteristics because some voltage goes into that. What about hole
injection? You do not have to worry at all because it is the order of magnitude is smaller.
But still some people have made out cases where they say may be if we go to very high
current densities, you may get some hole injection comparable to this one, that is the
thermionic emission. Otherwise you do not have to worry about it. I think with that we
 

have completed our discussion on schottky barrier diode, we have seen ideality and non-
ideality everything. The main thing that you would require is in the reverse bias operation
how does it behave. You should know how to cut down the reverse leakage current.
Those techniques also we have seen here like providing field plate, oxide and metal
running over the oxide you can reduce that current. So all that we have seen now will
take on in the next lecture, the three terminal device which uses the schottky barrier as
the gate that is the MESFET. So we will see next time on that.