Numerical investigation of carrier transport in double heterostructure:: AlGaAs/GaAs PNPN bistable device

• Hamid Z. Fardi ^[1]
  1. [1] Department of Electrical Engineering University of Colorado, USA
• Localización: Compel: International journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, ISSN 0332-1649, Vol. 13, Nº 4, 1994, págs. 893-902
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Numerical device simulation is developed to study the steady‐state and transient current‐voltage characteristics of double heterostructure AlGaAs/GaAs PNPN electro‐photonic device when its performance is influenced by the presence of interface and bulk recombination mechanism. The simulation results show that the holding current and voltage and the breakover point are strongly affected by varying the minority carrier lifetime at outer heterojunctions. Numerical results also indicate that shortening the minority carrier lifetime in the inner PN homojunction region only increases the OFF‐state current. These results are in agreement with experimental data on AlGaAs/GaAs PNPN devices. The numerical modelling approach taken in this study is shown to be essential in the design and optimization of PNPN switch.