Assessment of Monte Carlo Simulation of Electron Transport in ZnO Diode in Intelligent Information Systems

Abstract

Aim: The interest to study electron transport in semiconductor devices at very high electric field has been increased in the last decades and assessment of Monte Carlo simulation of electron transport in ZnO diode in intelligent information systems is of high significance. Method: The Monte Carlo method as applied to semiconductor transport is a simulation of the trajectories of individual Carriers as they move through a device under the influence of external forces and subject to random scattering events. Monte Carlo simulation is performed to study quasi-ballistic transport of electrons in n + nn + ZnO diode. Result: In this simulation, the spatial motion of the electrons is semi classical and the scattering mechanisms taken into account are those due to acoustic phonons, non-polar optical phonons, polar optical phonons and ionized impurities. The simulation results are reported for different temperatures and voltages. Conclusion: It is also found that the transient properties of ZnO-made diode are not much sensitive to environment temperature changes, and thus the use of this substance is highly recommended in manufacture of electronic equipment.

A Parametric Study of the Effects of Critical Design Parameters on the Performance of Nanoscale Silicon Devices

“…It is interesting to note that the variation of the maximum drift velocity is phenomenologically consistent with the effect of temperature on ZnO diodes with a 250 nm long channel as reported by Adeleh and Reza [20]. However, in their investigations, the maximum electron energy was found to decrease slightly with an increase in temperature, unlike the present findings.…”

“…This model has an energy band diagram similar to that of a MOSFET channel, with an injection barrier and a highly peaked lateral electric field, and includes impurity scattering and velocity overshoot, but the multi-dimensional potential gradients and confinement effects encountered in full device simulations are not present. This realistic 1D representation has thus been frequently used in the literature [20,[22][23][24] to study the transport phenomena in electronic devices in the primary direction of carrier transport-which fundamentally determine the device performance-in isolation from the complicating factors that arise in a full device simulation together with an increase in the computation time and cost. Moreover, while the MONET program employed in this study is able to simulate carrier transport in two-dimensional geometries, it does not incorporate a Poisson equation solver for the 2D mode.…”

“…This was despite the average electron energy being higher at higher temperatures, similar to the present results seen in Figure 8a. This difference is best explained by the significantly different band structures and bandgap energies (3.4 eV for ZnO [20] compared to 1.1 eV for silicon [21]) of the two materials.…”

“…MC simulations have been extensively used in literature to develop an understanding of how changes in device design, material and dimensions affect heat generation profiles. The ability to incorporate an accurate treatment of the various scattering mechanisms, and the lack of need to make assumptions regarding the carrier distribution in energy space [20] make the MC method a comprehensive approach for simulating charge transport in semiconductors. Pop et al [21] developed an MC model that incorporated analytical descriptions for the electron band structure and the phonon dispersion relationship of silicon, while neglecting the impact ionization, thus reducing the computational time significantly, but making it suitable only for low-field applications.…”