Avalanche breakdown of pn-junctions — Simulation by spherical harmonics expansion of the Boltzmann transport equation

Abstract

The deterministic solution of the coupled Boltzmann transport equations for electrons and holes is calculated by means of the spherical harmonics expansion method for avalanche breakdown of a pn-junction. An iteration scheme based on a splitting of the system matrix is presented, by which a stable solution of this numerically challenging problem can be obtained.