Investigations on the High Current Behavior of Lateral Diffused High-Voltage Transistors

Abstract

This paper describes the high current behavior of a lateral, n-channel, high-voltage transistor. The starting points are TCAD experiments where the phenomenological behavior is analyzed. Based on these results a transistor high current model is derived, which is based on the vertical integrated free carrier concentration in the drift region. The important model parameter is the gate voltage, which defines the boundary condition for the free electron concentration at the beginning of the drift region. Because of the coupling of the carrier continuity equation and the Poisson equation (drift-diffusion model), this boundary condition plays a major role, and defines the carrier concentration inside the drift region. Together with an intrinsic low-voltage transistor model (intrinsic NMOS transistor), a series network is solved numerically. The network behavior reflects the TCAD experiments quite well and covers the different electrical regimes (the on-resistance regime, the quasi-saturation regime, and the saturation regime). The model output is compared with the TCAD experiments and the measured transistor data as well.