Ultrafast Current Switching Using the Tunneling-Assisted Impact Ionization Front in a Silicon Semiconductor Closing Switch
- 1 January 2005
- journal article
- Published by Pleiades Publishing Ltd in Technical Physics Letters
- Vol. 31 (3) , 196-199
- https://doi.org/10.1134/1.1894430
Abstract
Ultrafast current switching in semiconductors, based on the mechanism of tunneling-assisted impact ionization front, has been experimentally implemented and theoretically studied. A voltage pulse with an amplitude of 220 kV and a front duration of 1 ns was applied to a semiconductor device containing 20 serially connected silicon diode structures. After switching, 150-to 160-kV pulses with a power of 500 MW, a pulse duration of 1.4 ns, and a front duration of 200–250 ps were obtained in a 50-Ω transmission line. The maximum current and voltage buildup rates amounted to 10 kA/ns and 500 kV/ns, respectively, at a switched current density of 13 kA/cm2. The results of numerical simulation are presented, which show that the current switching is initiated at a threshold field strength of about 1 MV/cm in the vicinity of the p-n junction, where the tunneling-assisted impact ionization begins.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Superfast fronts of impact ionization in initially unbiased layered semiconductor structuresJournal of Applied Physics, 2002
- Tunneling-assisted impact ionization fronts in semiconductorsJournal of Applied Physics, 2002