Ionization enhanced diffusion: Diode degradation

Gold-silicon Schottky diodes were subjected to forward bias for different current densities, at 300 and 150 K. The evolution of current voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics vs treatment was studied. A progressive deterioration of the current-voltage characteristics, evolving from the characteristics of an abrupt junction to the characteristics of a resistance, was observed at both 300 and 150 K. Analysis of the evolution of the capacitance-voltage characteristics show that gold migrated into the space-charge region. The behavior, at 300 K, of the diffusion length of gold with the amount of injection provides evidence that this migration is due to certain diffusion mechanism caused by successive trapping of charged carriers.