PII:

Solid-State Electronics Vol. 42, No. 6, pp. 939941, 1998

# 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
0038-1101/98 $19.00 + 0.00
S0038-1101(98)00113-0

THE SMALL SIGNAL AC IMPEDANCE OF A SHORT pn

JUNCTION DIODE
G. GARCIA-BELMONTE1, J. BISQUERT1 and V. CASELLES2
Departament de Ciencies Experimentals, Universitat Jaume I, 12080 Castello, Spain
2
Departament de Matematiques i Informatica, UIB, 07071 Palma (Balears), Spain

(Received 10 July 1997; in revised form 28 November 1997)

1. INTRODUCTION

2. FORMAL STUDY OF THE APPROXIMATION

The small signal AC impedance of a uniformly

doped p+n junction is[1]


1=2 
tanh tw =tp jo tw
Zpn o R0
1


1 jo tp 1=2 tanh tw =tp 1=2

To derive Equation (2) from Equation (1) in a

simple way we state the short diode condition as
b<<1, where b is
 2
tw
w

3
b
Lp
tp
p
In Equation (1) we expand the term tanh( b) using
the formula

when a direct voltage is applied under low injection

conditions. In Equation (1) o is the angular frequency o = 2pf, where f is the frequency, R0=(dI/
dV)1, tp is the lifetime of the hole minority carriers, w is the length of the lower doped n bulk
region, Lp is the minority carrier diusion length
for holes, with tp=Lp2/Dp, where Dp is the diusion
coecient, and nally tw=w2/Dp is a characteristic
transit time.
When the lower doped n region of the diode is
narrow (w<<Lp) the impedance in Equation (1) can
be approximated in the whole frequency range by
the function
p
tanh jo tw
p
2
Zpnw o R0
jo tw
which was discussed some time ago by Lindmayer
and Wrigley[2]. This impedance function is often
used in the treatment of diusion phenomena along
thin spatial regions in electrochemical systems[3,4].
The use of Zpnw instead of Zpn greatly simplies
the equivalent circuit approach to characterise a p
n junction, as we have shown in a recent paper[5].
The measurement of the impedance as a function of
frequency is straightforward, and a t to a model
circuit in which Zpnw accounts for diusion of minority carriers provides an accurate determination of
the parameter tw.
Here we address some issues that are important
for the application of Equation (2) in impedance
spectroscopy studies of pn junctions. We present a
rigorous proof of the validity of the approximation,
and we discuss the small signal ac response of the
junction in terms of a nite transmission line length.
Finally, we determine the error involved when using
Zpnw in place of Zpn.

tanhzz

z3




3

and we get


1=2 
tanh tw =tp jo tw
Zpn o 1R0

1=2
tw =tp jo tw

If the small term tw/tp is neglected, then

Equation (5) turns into Zpnw.
A rigorous proof of the validity of the w-approximation goes as follows. Let us dene the dimensionless functions Ypn=Zpn/R0, and Ypnw=Zpnw/R0 and
consider the inequality


 
Ypn Ypnw RYpn f jO b
j f jO b f jOj 6
where O = otw and f is the complex function
p
tanh z
f z
p
z

Taking Equation (5) into account, we get from

Equation (6)


Ypn Ypnw R b j f jO b f jOj
3

A theorem of complex variable calculus ensures us

that
j f jO b f jOjRj f 0 xjb

where x is a point in the line L = [ jO, jO + b]. It

is easily checked that the derivative
939

940

G. Garcia-Belmonte et al.

f 0 z


p 
1
1
tanh z

2z cosh2 z
z

10

takes its maximum value in the line L at z=jO.

Furthermore, v f'( jO)v is a decreasing function of O,
and therefore the quantity
lim j f 0 jOj
O

40

1
3

is an upper bound to the derivative. Thus, we have

shown that


Ypn Ypnw R 2b
3

11

For instance, when w/Lp=0.1, the bound is 0.007.

3. STRUCTURE OF THE IMPEDANCE FUNCTIONS

As is well known, recombination phenomena in

the narrow, lower doped n region of the diode are
negligible compared to diusion phenomena. It is
not surprising then that Zpnw constitutes a very
good approximation in short pn junctions, in as
much as Zpnw is the exact impedance function of
1D diusion in a nite length region in which the
diusing species is drained out at the boundary.
The impedance Zpnw is sometimes represented as an
RC parallel combination where both the resistance
and capacitance change with frequency[2].
Nevertheless, it is more useful to consider the distributed circuit represented in Fig. 1, owing to the
fact that in terms of the impedance, non-blocked
1D diusion in a nite zone is analogous to a nite
length transmission line terminated in a short-circuit
represented in Fig. 1. The eective signal penetration length
p in the line of Fig. 1 is of the order
of l 1= o rc, and in consequence the impedance
has two distinct frequency regimes. For high
enough frequencies so that the penetration length is
shorter than the length of the line, the impedance is
eectively the same as in diusion in a semi-innite
zone, whereas at low frequencies the distributed circuit behaves as a RC parallel association. These
trends are indeed encountered in the typical shape
of the function Zpnw, which is presented in Fig. 2.
The two frequency regimes are separated by the
characteristic frequency ow=2ptw1. At high frequencies (HF) o >> ow ;

Fig. 1. RC-transmission line of nite length terminated in

a short-circuit; r and c are the resistance and capacitance
per unit length

Fig. 2. Complex plane representation of the 1D diusion

impedance Zpnw. Z' and Z0 are the real and imaginary
parts of the impedance, respectively. The point marks the
impedance at the frequency ow=2ptw1

Equation (2) can be expressed as

1
Zo R0 p
jo tw

12

Equation (12) is a Warburg impedance, which

forms a straight line inclined at 458 with respect to
the real axis in the complex plane. At low frequencies (LF) o<<ow, Zpnw forms a semicircle in the
complex plane, and the admittance is that of a RC
parallel circuit,


1
1

13
jo
t
YRC o R1
w
0
3
These results are to be compared with those for the
pn junction exact impedance function Zpn. In the
LF region, Equation (1) in the admittance form
turns into



1
1 tw
1 jo tw 1
14
Ypn o 1R1
0
3
3 tp
while at HF, Equation (1) can be written as
1
Zpn o 1R0 p


jo tp tanh tw =tp 1=2

15

4. ERROR INVOLVED IN THE USE OF THE

APPROXIMATION

The previous results allow to establish accurately

the amount of error committed when using Zpnw
instead of Zpn. We will consider the relative error


Zpn Zpnw 


16
Dw o ,tp ,tw
Zpn 
as one usually employs the modulus of the impedance as a weight function in the t of impedance
data[6]. In all cases where b<<1, the relative error
Dw presents the following characteristics: it is negligible at LF, peaks at intermediate frequencies
o1 ow, and attains a constant value at HF. This is
seen in the results of the numerical calculation of
Dw for b = 0.05 and b = 0.1 presented in Fig. 3.
To explain the typical shape of Dw, it can be

The small signal ac impedance of a short p-njunction diode

941

Dw becomes practically zero. At HF, a comparison

of Equations (12) and (15) shows that in this frequency regime the error is independent of frequency. Expanding the tanh term in Equation (15)
one can compute the relative error at HF, yielding
Dw HF

Fig. 3. The relative error Dw for b = 0.05 (solid line) and

for b = 0.1 (dashed line)

b
3

17

This general result is fullled by the numerical calculations presented in Fig. 3. Equation (17) is valid
only for a short diode, as the numerical calculations
of Dw for b = 1 and b = 10 presented in Fig. 4
show. Finally, it should be remarked that the approximate expression in Equation (13), which is
often employed as an approximation to Zpn for a
short diode[7], is useless at HF.
AcknowledgementsThe authors at Universitat Jaume I
appreciate the support of A. Segura. This work was partially supported by the Fundacio Caixa-Castello. An anonymous reviewer is acknowledged from bringing Ref.[2] to
our attention.

REFERENCES

Fig. 4. The relative error Dw for b = 1 (solid line) and for

b = 10 (dashed line)

observed that at LF the real parts of Equations (13)

and (14) are the same, and that the dierence
between the respective imaginary parts gets smaller
as o decreases, therefore for small frequency values

1. Van der Ziel, A., Solid State Physical Electronics, 3rd

ed. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Clis, 1976.
2. Lindmayer, J. and Wrigley, C., Fundamentals of
Semiconductor Devices. Van Nostrand, 1965.
3. Honders, A. and Broers, G. H. J., Solid State Ion.,
1984, 15, 173.
4. Sluyters-Rehbach, M. and Sluyters, J. H., in
Comprehensive Treatise of Electrochemistry 9, ed. E.
Yeager, J. O. M. Bockris, B. Conway and S.
Sarangapani. Plenum Press, New York, 1984.
5. Bisquert, J. and Garcia-Belmonte, G., Electron. Lett.,
1997, 33, 900.
6. Boukamp, B. A., Solid State Ion., 1986, 20, 31.
7. Tyagi, M. S., Introduction to Semiconductor Materials
and Devices. Wiley, New York, 1991.