Temperature Dependence of Silicon Properties

Abstract

To understand the physics of operation of silicon power devices in a cryogenic environment, it is first important to completely comprehend the variation of certain key silicon properties with temperature. In silicon, a reduction in temperature has an affect on the availability of free carriers, forbidden bandgap, intrinsic carrier concentration, carrier mobilities, carrier lifetimes and impact ionization coefficients. This chapter summarizes the currently accepted models of temperature dependence of these silicon properties.