COMPUTATION OF CHARGE COLLECTION PROBABILITY

FOR ANY COLLECTING JUNCTION SHAPE

Oka Kurniawan1, Vincent K. S. Ong2, Chee Chin Tan2 and Erping Li1
1 Institute of High Performance Computing

A*STAR
Singapore 117528
e-mail: kurniawano@ihpc.a-star.edu.sg
2 School
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Introduction Nanyang Technological University The U-shaped Junction Well
The electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) technique of the scanning Singapore 639798
The U-shaped junction well is a junction shape that is commonly adopted
electron microscope (SEM) has been widely used e-mail:forvo@pmail.ntu.edu.sg,
semiconductor in tanc0184@ntu.edu.sg
bipolar technology as shown in Fig. 2.
devices and materials characterizations. The EBIC techniques relies on
The boundary condition for U-shaped junction well
the carriers generation, diffusion and collection as illustrated in Fig. 1.

The charge collection probability Q is Q = 1, for x = 0 and 0 ≤ z ≤ h

the EBIC current due to point source
Q = 1, for x = d and 0 ≤ z ≤ h
generation. The EBIC current of an
extended source is simply the Q = 0, for z = 0 and 0 < x < d
convolution of the charge collection Q = 1, for z = h and 0 ≤ x ≤ d .
probability Q with the generation source
distribution, thus the study and Fig. 2 U-shaped junction well
computation of the charge collection
probability
development
Q enhances
of the method
A new computational EBIC technique
the
for the charge collection probability
Fig. 1 EBIC process within
Results
and
the give rises to
collecting its widewith
junction ranges
theofuse of reciprocity theorem and finite Fig. 3 shows the charge collection distribution computed using finite
difference method is presented. This application.
new computational method is difference method for different diffusion lengths.
• Readily applicable to any shapes of charge
collecting junction
• Bypass the computation of charge carrier density
distribution
• Avoid the computational difficulties encountered in
conventional approach.

Theory Fig Fig3. Charge collection

4. shows probability
the relative distributioninin charge
difference x-z plane collection
computed using
difference method. (a) L=1 µ m, (b) L=3 µ m, (c) L=10 µ m.
between the results computed using finite difference method and
finite
probability

The reciprocity theorem [1] gives the spatial relationship of the charge analytical expression for L=1µ m.
collection probability. In x-z plane, the charge collection probability at Table I statistically summarizes the absolute difference between the
location (x’, z’) obeys charge collection probability computed using finite difference method and
analytical expression.
∂ 2 Q(x' , z' ) ∂ 2 Q(x' , z' )
2
+ 2
− λ 2 Q(x' , z' ) = 0
∂x ∂ z
where λ is the reciprocal of diffusion length L.
In finite difference method, the independent continuous variable is
L= L= L=
replaced by discrete variable. µ m
10.004118 µ m
30.004076 10 µ m
Mean 0.004076
The second derivative can be approximated using centered difference Standard 0.004339 0.004418 0.004426
approximation [2] deviation
Maximum 0.024668 0.025058 0.0251
Minimum 8.26 x10-7 4.23x10---6 7.7x10-6
where xs is the node spacing.
f(x + x s ) − 2f (x) + f(x − x s )
''
f (x) ≈is obtained when
A system of equation 2 those equations is applied to
xs Fig 4 Relative difference in computed Table I Statistic summary for
each node point and solving this system of equation results the charge charge collection probability with absolute difference in computed
collection probability. respect of analytical expression, L = charge collection probability with
1µ m. respect of analytically expression

Verification
The charge collection probability distribution within the junction well of a
U-shaped junction well with 5 µ m for both its width and height is
computed using the proposed computational method with the use of
Matlab. The results were compared with the charge collection probability
distribution computed using analytical expression derived in [3] where the
infinite summation is truncated at 600 terms.
References
[1] C. Donolato, "A reciprocity theorem for charge collection," Applied
Physics Letters, vol. 46, pp. 270-2, 1985.
[2] M. T. Heath, Scientific Computing : an introductory survey 2nd ed.
Boston : McGraw-Hill 2002.
[3] O. Kurniawan and V. K. S. Ong, "Charge collection from within a
collecting junction well," IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol.
55, pp. 1220-1228, 2008.

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