ACCURATE COMPUTATION OF ELECTRIC FIELD IN REVERSE‐BIASED SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES: A MIXED FINITE‐ELEMENT APPROACH

Abstract

A mixed variational formulation of the free boundary problem involved in the analysis of reverse‐biased semiconductor devices is put forward. This can be profitably used in the investigation of the field distribution near the junction and at the surface of devices. A peculiar feature of the new formulation is that the electric field is assumed as a variable in the solution, together with the potential, thus enabling the electric field to be determined directly and accurately. The numerical algorithm associated with the method turns out to be quite simple and can be easily and readily implemented even on a desktop computer.