Effects of dislocation density on injection and temperature sensitivity of InGaN LED emission spectra: a combined experimental and simulation approach

The aim of this paper is to describe a combined simulation and characterization activity carried out on blue LEDs grown on templates with different threading dislocation densities (TDDs)

Evaluating the Impedance Field through several transport models: a comparison

J. APPL. PHYS

An overview on recent developments in RF and microwave power H-terminated diamond MESFET technology

Thanks to its wide bandgap, exceptionally high thermal conductivity and relatively high carrier velocities, diamond exhibits attractive semiconductor properties that make it an interesting candidate for high power, high frequency and high temperature solid-state microelectronic devices, able to withstand harsh environmental conditions (in terms of temperature and/or radiation). The development of a diamond transistor technology has been restricted for many years due to the difficulty in implementing conventional acceptor or donor bulk doping strategies with satisfactory activation at room temperature. More recently, a breakthrough in diamond MESFET technology was represented by the introduction of surface diamond p-doping by means of H-termination, opening the way to interesting development in the microwave field. The paper presents an overview on recent developments in H-terminated diamond MESFETs for power RF and microwave applications. After an introduction to the diamond technology and device state-of-the-art performance, the physics-based and large-signal modeling of diamond MESFETs is discusse

Quantum model for carrier capture time through phonon emission in InGaN/GaN LEDs

Abstract-A quantum model is developed to obtain electron capture time in a quantum well through electron-longitudinal optic phonon emission, as function of carrier density, showing the interplay between phonon and collective plasma modes. We demonstrate that the usual approximation of a constant capture time in modeling of light-emitting diodes is not adequate, because this parameter varies considerably with the device working point

Simplex algorithm for band structure calculation of noncubic symmetry semiconductors: Application to III-nitride binaries and alloys

A set of software tools for the determination of the band structure of zinc-blende, wurtzite, 4H, and 6H semiconductors is presented. A state of the art implementation of the nonlocal empirical pseudopotential method has been coupled with a robust simplex algorithm for the optimization of the adjustable parameters of the model potentials. This computational core has been integrated with an array of Matlab functions, providing interactive functionalities for defining the initial guess of the atomic pseudopotentials, checking the convergence of the optimization process, plotting the resulting band structure, and computing detailed information about any local minimum. The results obtained for wurtzite-phase III-nitrides (ALN, GaN, InN) are presented as a relevant case study

Correlating electroluminescence characterization and physics-based models of InGaN/GaN LEDs: Pitfalls and open issues

Electroluminescence (EL) characterization of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs), coupled with numerical device models of different sophistication, is routinely adopted not only to establish correlations between device efficiency and structural features, but also to make inferences about the loss mechanisms responsible for LED efficiency droop at high driving currents. The limits of this investigative approach are discussed here in a case study based on a comprehensive set of current- and temperature-dependent EL data from blue LEDs with low and high densities of threading dislocations (TDs). First, the effects limiting the applicability of simpler (closed-form and/or one-dimensional) classes of models are addressed, like lateral current crowding, vertical carrier distribution nonuniformity, and interband transition broadening. Then, the major sources of uncertainty affecting state-of-the-art numerical device simulation are reviewed and discussed, including (i) the approximations in the transport description through the multi-quantum-well active region, (ii) the alternative valence band parametrizations proposed to calculate the spontaneous emission rate, (iii) the difficulties in defining the Auger coefficients due to inadequacies in the microscopic quantum well description and the possible presence of extra, non-Auger high-current-density recombination mechanisms and/or Auger-induced leakage. In the case of the present LED structures, the application of three-dimensional numerical-simulation-based analysis to the EL data leads to an explanation of efficiency droop in terms of TD-related and Auger-like nonradiative losses, with a C coefficient in the 10−30 cm6/s range at room temperature, close to the larger theoretical calculations reported so far. However, a study of the combined effects of structural and model uncertainties suggests that the C values thus determined could be overestimated by about an order of magnitude. This preliminary attempt at uncertainty quantification confirms, beyond the present case, the need for an improved description of carrier transport and microscopic radiative and nonradiative recombination mechanisms in device-level LED numerical models

Modeling challenges for high-efficiency visible light-emitting diodes

In order to predict through numerical simulation the optical and carrier transport properties of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a genuine quantum approach should be combined with an atomistic description of the electronic structure. However, computational considerations have elicited the empirical inclusion of quantum contributions within conventional semiclassical drift-diffusion approaches. The lack of first-principles validation tools has left these \u201cquantum corrections\u201d largely untested, at least in the context of LED simulation. We discuss here the results obtained comparing state-of-the-art commercial numerical simulators, in order to assess the predictive capabilities of some of the most important quantum-based models complementing the drift-diffusion equations