Calculate a PN device I–V sweep

Apply direct doping or link a process recipe, calculate a PN bias sweep, and save a PN project document.

Before you start

These steps apply to Cloud 2.1.2.10 and Windows 2.1.2.3.

The classical PN drift-diffusion model uses ideal ohmic p-left/n-right contacts and reflective y boundaries.

On Cloud, stop the project runtime before running the device calculation and saving or opening project documents.

Apply direct doping

  1. In the window header, open the product menu and choose vFactory > Wafer Process & Fab. Select Process models, then Device (PN).

  2. Enter Acceptor (cm^-3), Donor (cm^-3) and Junction (nm, 1 µm device). Use positive concentrations up to 1e19 cm^-3 and a junction greater than 0 and less than 1000 nm.

  3. Select Apply direct doping to place these values in the request.

  4. Enter Bias points (V, comma separated), Grid nx and Grid ny, then select Apply sweep settings. Use 1–32 increasing bias points, nx of at least 3, ny of at least 2 and at most 512 nodes in total.

Use a current process recipe

  1. Prepare the wafer process recipe in Process models, then open Device (PN) and select Link current process recipe.

  2. Expand Advanced inputs and edit PN request JSON (explicit SI model and boundaries). For a wafer source, assign each source material donor, acceptor or excluded in source.material_dopants.

  3. Apply the bias and grid settings with Apply sweep settings. The calculation replays the linked process recipe to obtain its output.

Run and read the sweep

  1. Select Run PN simulation. During the calculation, select Cancel PN simulation to stop it.

  2. Read PN I–V curve (V, A) for signed terminal current against bias voltage. Read Convergence and current continuity for the current, iterations, update residual and ΔI at each point.

  3. Expand Input, model and result SHA provenance to inspect the input, result and engine hashes, source revision, source hashes and configuration hashes.

Save and open a project document

  1. Keep the project used for this calculation selected, with project file access enabled.

  2. Select Save PN to project. For the first save, enter a new name in Project document filename, then select Save project document. Keep the .alcad-device-pn.json filename ending on Windows; Cloud adds this ending when you enter a bare name.

  3. Select Save PN to project again to update the opened or saved file. To create another file, select Save PN as project file, enter a new filename and select Save project document.

  4. Select Open PN from project, choose the file in Project document, and select Open project document. If a draft is unsaved, select Replace the current unsaved draft with this file. before opening it.

Run your first process model in vFactory

Example inputs

Example inputs are synthetic assumptions.