Simulating the electron beam induced current (EBIC) effect in a computer

• Main Author: Lim, Wei lun
• Other Authors: Ong Keng Sian, Vincent
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Semiconductors
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/49296
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Electron-Beam-Induced Current (EBIC) is a technique that makes use of the induced current generated as the result of the electron beam bombardment upon the specimen for semiconductor materials and devices characterisation. Material characterisation is one of the important fields in the research and study of semiconductor materials and devices characterization aims to determine and study the parameters, i.e., diffusion length, that play a significant role in the functionality and performance of semiconductor devices such as bipolar transistor, solar cells and photodiodes. The studies of the material and devices characterization technique such as EBIC technique can be studied using the TCAD simulation on computer. Using TCAD tools will greatly ease the understanding and development of the characterization technique and avoid the challenges encounter during the real experiment. Currently, the EBIC simulation in NTU is done using TCAD Taurus Medici, a widely used devices simulation software. In this project, new TCAD software namely Sentaurus TCAD tools, developed by Synopsys, is being explored, particularly on EBIC simulation. The Sentaurus TCAD tools will serve as an alternative and complementary approach to study the EBIC in the research group. This report summarizes the use of Sentaurus TCAD tools, i.e., Sentaurus Structure Editor and Sentaurus Devices, to simulate and study the EBIC Effect. Firstly, it discusses the creation of the simulating structure and simulation mesh. The structure studied is the normal collector configuration, which is a widely used configuration in EBIC technique. It then discusses the simulation procedure, e.g., the modelling of the generation volume and the specification of the simulation parameters. Lastly, the report examines the normalized EBIC profiles of the normal-collector configuration obtained from the simulation by comparing them with the results computed using a well established analytical expression. A good agreement is found, validating the use of Sentaurus TCAD tools in EBIC studies. Furthermore, this report also demonstrates that the Sentaurus TCAD tools are capable of EBIC simulation and reveal untapped and great potential for Sentaurus to be used in future EBIC and other Semiconductor devices simulations.