Reverse biased P-N junction noise in GaAsP diodes with avalanche breakdown induced microplasmas

摘要

Random two-level or multiple-level current impulses may occur in electronic devices containing reverse biased p-n junctions in a certain operating mode. These impulses are usually rectangular, featuring constant amplitude, random pulse width and pulse origin time points. This phenomenon is generally ascribed to local avalanche breakdowns originating in p-n junction defect regions called microplasma regions. Based on experiment results, a two-state model of stochastic generation-recombination process has been elaborated for the two-level impulse noise allowing to derive some statistical characteristics of this process. It can be shown that the distribution of the probability density w(τ_0) of the impulse separation τ_0 and the probability density w(τ_1) of the impulse width τ_1 have exponential courses. The power spectral density of the noise current is of a G-R process type and depends on the particular microplasma properties. From the viewpoint of noise diagnostics, the most important features are the spectral density S_u and noise current I_N versus reverse current I_R plots, because each local extreme of these plots corresponds to an active microplasma region. Thus obtained results may be used for p-n junction non-destructive diagnostics and quality assessment.