Reference Number: DEVCOM-168
Project Description
Impact ionization coefficients (IICs) are essential for modeling the breakdown characteristics of power devices and simulating the avalanche gain for photonics devices. The extraction of IICs is possible for Si and the wide-bandgap semiconductors but remains a challenge for the ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors, due to reliability challenges associated with high-voltage operations. In this project, the student will interact with various research teams at ARL to:
(1) Review and apply existing methodologies for experimentally (through I-V measurements) and theoretically (through Monte Carlo simulations) extracting IICs for Semiconductors.
(2) Review alpha- and beta-voltaic technologies with an emphasis on the quantification of electron hole pairs generations as a function of radiation energy
(3) Correlate injected particle energy into an effective internal electric field using more mature material like 4H-SiC for which IICs are more well understood.
(4) Based on calibrations in step 3, extract impact ionization coefficients in UWBG semiconductors by means of EBIC, alpha- and beta-voltaic.
(5) Draft a technical report and draft a presentation of key findings.
Technical Skills
- Technical communication
- Device characterization
- TCAD Modeling
