Unified approach to breakdown phenomena in silicon p-n junction

Abstract In this paper on the basis of the expression for the differential resistance derived in [5] the following proposed breakdown modes of a silicon p - n junction are presented: the avalanche breakdown, the thermal breakdown, the avalanche-thermal breakdown. The dependence of the turnover temperature on the thermal resistance, the ambient temperature and the low-voltage reverse current is calculated for the most important case of the avalanche-thermal breakdown. The possibility to use the expression for the differential resistance to determine the thermal stability of a junction under the steady-state condition is also discussed.