Effect of radial structure on the performance of lateral high-power GaAs photoconductive switch

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of radial structure on the performance of a linear-lateral GaAs high power photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) is investigated. For this purpose a three-dimensional device modeling is used to model the optically initiated GaAs switch. In this simulation a p-type device with carbon as shallow acceptor is compensated by deep donor EL2 level as a trap level. The PCSS device is designed in a back-triggered, radially symmetric switch structure which extends the blocking voltage by reducing the peak electric field near the electrodes. Device modeling was performed and the effect of different trap concentrations on dark I-V characteristics has been investigated. In this paper effect of device thickness, different bias voltages and optical power density on transient simulation is reported.