Search

Reliability is an important consideration during semiconductor technology development, which ensures that the performances of devices, circuits, and systems are maintained over a specified period of time, leading to successful products. Device reliability is at the core of overall product reliability, which continues to remain an important area of research and has attracted the attention of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (T-ED) authors and readers throughout the years. Device reliability can be classified into two broad areas: gradual drift of device performance over time or sudden failure, and both are of importance for logic, memory, RF, and power devices. Different aspects of device reliability are usually reported, such as the development of electrical or physical characterization methods, investigation and modeling of a particular phenomenon, impact of material and processes on reliability, and development of reliability tolerant technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A self-consistent numerical Poisson-Schrödingerdrift-diffusion solver is described for simulation of multiple-quantum-well (MQW) Al[sub x]Ga[sub 1-x]As-GaAs solar cells. The rates of escape, capture, and recombination of photoexcited carriers in quantum wells embedded in the intrinsic region of a p-i-n device are self-consistently incorporated in the model. The performance of the device for various quantum-well configurations is investigated and the device characteristics are related to the dynamics of capture, escape, absorption, and recombination of carriers in the quantum wells. Our results show that the incorporation of MQWs in the intrinsic region of a p-i-n solar cell can improve the conversion efficiency of non-optimal devices, if the device is designed based on careful consideration of the behavior of the photoexcited carriers in the quantum wells. Specifically, we found out that an Al[sub 0.1]Ga[sub 0.9]As-GaAs cell with multiple quantum wells of 150 Å is more efficient than an identical single bandgap Al[sub 0.1] Ga[sub 0.9]As cell with no quantum wells, but less efficient than a single bandgap GaAs cell without such quantum wells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]