Semiconductor power

Inoue, T., Fujishima, A., Konishi, S., and Honda, K. (1979) Photoelectrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide in aqueous suspensions of semiconductor powers. Nature, 277 (5698), 637-638. 

Frank, S. N., and A. J. Bard, Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Oxidation of Cyanide and Sulfite in Aqueous Solutions at Semiconductor Powers, J. Phys. Chem., 81, 1484-1488 (1977). 

For this reason, float-zoned silicon intended for the fabrication of semiconductor power devices is often specified -to contain low carbon concentration, e.g., less than 1 ppma. Carbon has been reported to play a role in the heterogeneous nucleation of oxide precipi-tates (37-40). In principle, carbon nucleation of oxide microprecipitates could be used to advan-tage in designing IC processes. In practice, however, the nonuniformity of the carbon distribution renders this an impractical approach. Thus in order to avoid uncontrolled variations in the oxide precipitation, low-carbon silicon is often specified for processes which use intrinsic gettering. 

With increasing demands for electric transportation systems and/or electric vehicles, semiconductor power modules such as electric power converters and DC-AC inverters will continue to expand in terms of their applications. In these systems, in order to transmit a high electric current, thick copper electrodes are often directly bonded to ceramic substrates, the structures of which may cause major residual stresses in ceramic parts. Thus, to avoid failure due to residual stress, ceramic materials are required to have a high strength and, in order to further improve the reUabUity of the systems, improvements in the mechanical properties of high-thermal conductivity materials are clearly required. Consequently, the electrical industries are continuing an active search for alternative materials with both high thermal conductivity and superior mechanical properties. 

Nilsson. The influence of Auger recombination on the forward characteristic of semiconductor power rectifiers at high current densities, Solid-State Electronics Jj5, 681 (1973). ... 

Fig. 10.29 Cathodic protection using impressed current, (a) A circuit showing the principles the signal from the reference electrode is passed to a power-unit control where it is compared with a preset level. The resultant error signal is amplified and used to control semiconductor power devices which allow a controlled current to pass through the anodes, (b) A typical layout of components in various types of vessel, (c) Transformer/rectifier power units for marine use. (d) Platinized titanium or lead-silver alloy anodes being installed on a ship s hull. The anodes are insulated from the hull and have special insulating, backing shields which help to improve potential distribution and prevent over-protection, i.e. too negative a potential (Photographs courtesy Corrintec (UK) Ltd.)...

Lutz, J. Schlangenotto H. Scheuermann, U. De Doncker, R. 2011. Semiconductor Power Devices Physics, Characteristics, Reliability. Heidelberg Dordrecht, London, New York Springer. 

The war itself also drove the development of improved and miniaturised electronic components for creating oscillators and amplifiers and, ultimately, semiconductors, which made practical the electronic systems needed in portable eddy current test instruments. The refinement of those systems continues to the present day and advances continue to be triggered by performance improvements of components and systems. In the same way that today s pocket calculator outperforms the large, hot room full of intercormected thermionic valves that I first saw in the 50 s, so it is with eddy current instrumentation. Today s handheld eddy current inspection instrument is a powerful tool which has the capability needed in a crack detector, corrosion detector, metal sorter, conductivity meter, coating thickness meter and so on. 

The most useful direct modulation teclmique is the current gain switching of semiconductor laser devices. This technique is unique to semiconductor sources, nearly all other lasers are modulated externally. In tliese devices tire excitation current of tire laser is modulated, resulting in modulated gain and tlierefore modulated output power. A detailed analysis of tliis process is found in [27]. Simply put, an oscillating current of tire fonn... 

It is used as a fluorinating reagent in semiconductor doping, to synthesi2e some hexafluoroarsenate compounds, and in the manufacture of graphite intercalated compounds (10) (see Semiconductors). AsF has been used to achieve >8% total area simulated air-mass 1 power conversion efficiencies in Si p-n junction solar cells (11) (see Solarenergy). It is commercially produced, but usage is estimated to be less than 100 kg/yr. 

Because there are two changes ia material composition near the active region, this represents a double heterojunction. Also shown ia Figure 12 is a stripe geometry that confines the current ia the direction parallel to the length of the junction. This further reduces the power threshold and makes the diffraction-limited spreading of the beam more symmetric. The stripe is often defined by implantation of protons, which reduces the electrical conductivity ia the implanted regions. Many different stmctures for semiconductor diode lasers have been developed. 

The two-dimensional carrier confinement in the wells formed by the conduction and valence band discontinuities changes many basic semiconductor parameters. The parameter important in the laser is the density of states in the conduction and valence bands. The density of states is gready reduced in quantum well lasers (11,12). This makes it easier to achieve population inversion and thus results in a corresponding reduction in the threshold carrier density. Indeed, quantum well lasers are characterized by threshold current densities as low as 100-150 A/cm, dramatically lower than for conventional lasers. In the quantum well lasers, carriers are confined to the wells which occupy only a small fraction of the active layer volume. The internal loss owing to absorption induced by the high carrier density is very low, as Httie as 2 cm . The output efficiency of such lasers shows almost no dependence on the cavity length, a feature usehil in the preparation of high power lasers. 

The remaining class depicted in Figure 2 is that of soHd-state devices, ie, transistors, various types of semiconductor diode amplifiers, etc. At frequencies below 1 GHz, generation of hundreds or even at the lower frequencies, kilowatts, is feasible by soHd state. Above 1 GHz power capabiHty of soHd-state sources drops. Development of efficient (- 50%) sources at about the 50 W level at S-band (2 GHz) has been demonstrated. It is reasonable to expect soHd-state sources to replace tubes for low frequency and low (<100 W) power appHcations (52). For high power or high frequency, however, tube sources should continue to prevail. 

Semiconductor devices ate affected by three kinds of noise. Thermal or Johnson noise is a consequence of the equihbtium between a resistance and its surrounding radiation field. It results in a mean-square noise voltage which is proportional to resistance and temperature. Shot noise, which is the principal noise component in most semiconductor devices, is caused by the random passage of individual electrons through a semiconductor junction. Thermal and shot noise ate both called white noise since their noise power is frequency-independent at low and intermediate frequencies. This is unlike flicker or ///noise which is most troublesome at lower frequencies because its noise power is approximately proportional to /// In MOSFETs there is a strong correlation between ///noise and the charging and discharging of surface states or traps. Nevertheless, the universal nature of ///noise in various materials and at phase transitions is not well understood. 

The relative abundance of neutral SiH and H2 species have been measured as a function of power, pressure, flow rate, and dilution. For low power levels, eg, 5 W, up to 50% of the SiH gas is dissociated and the percentage increases to 80% for a power of 50 W. The decomposition of SiH gas proceeds more readily with lower flow rates. These observations, coupled with infrared (ir) measurements performed on the films, suggest that deposition under conditions in which the silane gas is not entirely decomposed leads to a majority of SiH units, whereas those deposited under conditions in which silane is strongly dissociated contain a majority of dihydride units leading to a deterioration of the semiconductor. Also, when the dwell time of SiH in the plasma region increases, the resultant film exhibits a pronounced peak at 2090 cm from the ir spectra corresponding to S1H2 inclusion. 

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