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Modelling of diode forward

recovery characteristics
using a modified charge-
control equation
K. J. TSENG
Published online: 10 Nov 2010.

To cite this article: K. J. TSENG (1998) Modelling of diode forward recovery

characteristics using a modified charge-control equation, International Journal
of Electronics, 84:5, 437-444, DOI: 10.1080/002072198134544

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/002072198134544

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 INT. J. ELECTRONICS, 1998, VOL. 84, NO. 5, 437± 444

Modelling of diode forward recovery characteristics using a modi® ed

charge-control equation

K. J. TSENG²

The standard mathematical diode model currently used in most commercial circuit
simulators such as SPICE is not able to account for the forward recovery
characteristics. This is due to the quasi-static di€ usion charge equation and the
® xed internal resistance used in the model. A proposed modi® cation to the charge
equation is presented in this paper. This important modi® cation together with a
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proposed charge-dependent internal resistance equation have been test-

implemented in SPICE and Saber. It has been experimentally veri® ed that the
new model is able to describe the diode forward recovery behaviour more
realistically without degrading the convergence properties of the simulators.

1. Introduction
If the standard SPICE diode model is used to simulate a high-voltage high-
current diode, the forward and reverse recovery characteristics are not satisfactorily
predicted (Lauritzen 1990). Figure 1 shows a typical experimental trace of the cur-
rent through a high power diode when it is being turned o€ . The SPICE simulated
response is also shown. The soft recovery of the power diode cannot be simulated by
the SPICE diode model, leading to erroneous predictions of switching power dis-
sipation.
Another drawback of the standard diode model is its inability to simulate the
forward recovery, as illustrated in ® gure 2. When a diode turns on abruptly under
the in¯ uence of the external circuit, a sharp voltage overshoot occurs across the
diode. This is due to a number of factors, the chief of which is the ® nite time
taken by the conductivity modulation process in the bulk of the diode. The ® xed
internal resistance used in the standard model is inadequate for predicting such
characteristics.
In recent years, new models for the diode have been proposed. Some of these are
based on simpli® ed ® nite di€ erence algorithms in which the continuity equation is
continuously solved to obtain the dynamic excess carrier distribution pro® le (Goebel
1994, Metzner et al. 1994). The complexities of these models rendered them incom-
patible with circuit simulators such as SPICE. Another model employs Linvill’s
lumped-charge model in which the excess carrier distribution pro® le is discretized
into several critical regions, each containing a lumped charge node to represent
dynamic charge variation (Ma et al. 1994). Other models require auxiliary sub-
circuits to reproduce the soft recovery behaviour (Xu and Schroder 1988, Kraus et
al. 1992). Convergence di culties, long simulation times and extreme di culty in
parameter extraction are some of their drawbacks.

Received 12 June 1997; accepted 4 August 1997.

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,
²
Blk S2, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Republic of Singapore. Fax: + 65 792 0415;
E-mail: ekjtseng@ntu.edu.sg.
0020± 7217/98 $12.00 Ñ 1998 Taylor & Francis Ltd.
 438 K. J. Tseng
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Figure 1. Inability of standard diode model to simulate soft reverse recovery in power
diode current.

Figure 2. Inability of standard diode model to simulate forward recovery in power diode
voltage.
 Modelling of diode forward recovery characteristics 439

Recently, a modi® ed charge-control model was proposed by the author which allows
the simulation of reverse recovery characteristics with minimal modi® cations to the
standard diode model, thus minimizing convergence and parameter extraction pro-
blems (Tseng and Pan 1996). This paper shows that by formulating the internal
resistance of the diode model as a function of this modi® ed charge equation, it is
possible to simulate the forward recovery characteristics as well.

2. The modi® ed charge-control equation

In the conventional model for the pn junction diode, the steady-state di€ usion or
stored charge Qs in the base region is related to the junction voltage Vj by
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Qs =
qVj /kT
¿a Iss ( e - 1) ( 1)
where Iss is termed the diode reverse saturation current and ¿a is the average transit
time of carriers. To obtain a dynamic relation, the time rate of change of the stored
charge must be included. The diode current is thus given by
Qs dQs
ID ( t) = + ( 2)
¿a dt
where Qs is given by (1). This is the fundamental charge control equation for the pn
junction diode, which states that the diode current supplies carriers to the neutral
base region at the rate at which the stored charge increases plus the rate at which the
carriers are being lost by recombination. However, the stored charge given by (1) is
still based on the static relationship. Thus, this model is sometimes termed the quasi-
static model and, together with secondary equations describing reverse breakdown,
depletion capacitance, etc., it has been widely adopted by most standard circuit
simulators, e.g. SPICE and Saber.
Finite element analysis has shown that the excess carrier distribution pro® le in
the neighbourhood of a pn junction being turned-o€ is dependent on the rate of
change of the stored charge, i.e. dQS /dt (Tseng and Palmer 1994). This is shown in
® gure 3. Hence, to describe the dynamic behaviour of the charge, we have proposed
modifying the static charge equation as

Qs = ¿a
[ qVj /kT
Iss ( e - 1) - va
dQs
dt ] ( 3)

where va is the average viscosity of the ambipolar carriers in the base region.
The signi® cance of the additional term in (3) is analogous to the damping factor
that is used to characterize behaviour in mechanical systems. The parameter va is
related to the geometrical width of the base region and the spatial variation of the
minority carrier lifetime. The greater the magnitude of va , the greater the amount of
Qs that has to be extracted from the base region after the pn junction has gone into
reverse bias. This implies a softer recovery.
This equation is applicable to all types of diode structures, including p n, n p
+ +

and p-i-n. As there is essentially only one additional parameter in (3) compared with
(1), implementation in existing circuit simulators can be performed easily. It was also
shown that reverse recovery characteristics could be simulated realistically with this
modi® ed model (Tseng and Pan 1996).
 440 K. J. Tseng
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Figure 3. Changes in excess carrier distribution pro® les with respect to time.

3. Proposed charge-dependent internal resistance

In the standard diode model, a ® xed internal series resistance RS is frequently
inserted between the anode terminal and the rest of the model describing the beha-
viour of the pn junction. The purpose is to account for the contact resistance of the
diode. This works ® ne for small signal diodes, and even power diodes during steady
on-state. When a power diode is in the process of turning on, it has large bulk
resistance because its base region is relatively long and has low initial conductivity.
As the forward current increases, this bulk resistance eventually drops due to the
e€ ect of conductivity modulation. Hence, the voltage across the diode manifests a
momentary overshoot termed as the forward recovery, which could not be modelled
by the ® xed resistance RS .
In the o€ -state, the conductance of the base region may be estimated as
q( ¹ n n0 + ¹ pp0 ) Aj
ybase = ( 4)
Wd
where ¹ n and ¹ p are the mobilities of electrons and holes respectively, and n0 and p0
are the respective thermal equilibrium electron and hole concentrations in the base. As
 Modelling of diode forward recovery characteristics 441

all the terms in (4) are based on the geometrical dimensions and the thermal equili-
brium carrier densities, they can be lumped as the unmodulated conductance Y0
Ybase = Y0 ( 5)
In the steady on-state, the base region is in the high-level injection condition, and the
modulated conductance can be approximately written as
q( ¹ n + ¹ p ) na Aj
Ybase = ( 6)
Wd
where na is the ambipolar carrier concentration level. As the stored charge QS in the
base region during high-level injection is approximately proportional to na , (6) can
be re-written as
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ybase = a Qs ( 7)
where a is a parameter dependent on the diode geometry and the fabrication pro-
cesses to which the diode was subjected. The stored charge Qs is related to the
junction voltage Vj as given by the proposed modi® ed charge equation of (3).
Therefore, it is proposed here that the ® xed internal resistance Rs in the standard
diode model be replaced by a charge dependent resistance of the form
1
rs = ( 8)
Y0 + a Qs
Before the diode turns on, charge Qs is negligible and rs @ 1 /Y0 . This is similar to the
usage of a ® xed resistance Rs in the conventional model. During steady on-state,
a Qs @ Y0 and therefore rs @ 1 /a Qs . During the transient turning-on or turning-o€ ,
rs will have a value between the two extremes. As rs is now a function of Qs , it is also
dependent on dQs /dt as evidenced from (3).
This model has been test-implemented in SPICE and Saber, two of the most
widely used circuit simulators in the industry. Figure 4 shows the principle of the
modi® ed charge control model with the charge dependent internal resistance. The
standard SPICE diode model has been retained as the core of the new model. This is

Figure 4. Principle of modi® ed charge-control model with charge-dependent internal

resistance.
 442 K. J. Tseng

depicted by the diode symbol Dpn. Its function is to simulate the basic pn junction
behaviour, namely:

(1) the steady-state forward bias and reverse bias junction current (Shockley’s
model)
(2) the depletion layer capacitance, and
(3) the reverse breakdown characteristics.

Negative e€ ects of the new model on run-time overheads and convergence properties
are insigni® cant. Figure 5 shows the simulated forward recovery voltages for di€ er-
ent values of Y0 and a . The peak forward voltage is mainly determined by Y0 while
the rate of decay of the recovery voltage and the steady-state voltage drop is depen-
dent on the value of a 0 . Thus, the parameters Y0 and a of any particular diode can
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be estimated from comparison of simulated and experimental waveforms of forward

recovery voltage generated by standard test circuits.

Figure 5. E€ ect of parameters Y 0 and a on forward recovery simulation.

 Modelling of diode forward recovery characteristics 443

4. Experimental veri® cation

To verify the validity of the model, experimental tests and simulations have been
conducted using a low-side chopper test circuit. A high degree of correlation between
the experimental and simulated results have been observed for a wide range of
operating conditions. The operating conditions investigated are varying levels of
diode reverse voltage prior to turn-on, and varying levels of forward diode current
IF . Figure 6 shows the comparison of experimental and simulated diode voltage
waveforms for di€ erent values of forward current IF for the power diode
SD300C30C from International Recti® ers. The parameters for this particular
diode have been chosen as ¿a = 1. 7 ´ 10- 5 , va = 0. 04, Y0 = 1. 12 and a = 2 ´ 105 .
A good degree of correspondence for the forward recovery voltage over the range of
IF is in evidence. The complete set of model parameters is given in Table 1.
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Using this same set of parameters, simulated diode current waveforms during
reverse recovery are shown in ® gure 7 together with the corresponding experimental
results. Hence it can be seen that the model is able to show reasonable agreement
both in forward and reverse recovery with a consistent set of parameters.

Figure 6. Comparison of experimental and simulated forward recovery voltage waveforms

at di€ erent applied forward currents IF .

Parameter Symbol Value Unit

Reverse saturation current Iss 1 ´ 10- 10 amp
Zero-bias junction capacitance CJ0 1 ´ 1010 farad
Carrier transit time ¿a 1. 5 ´ 10- 5 s
Unmodulated conductance Y0 1. 12 mho
Carrier viscosity va 0.04 Ð
Conductance factor a 2 ´ 105 mho C- 1
Breakdown voltage BVBD 3000 V
Table 1. Model parameters for SD300C30C.
 444 Modelling of diode forward recovery characteristics
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Figure 7. Comparison of experimental and simulated reverse recovery current waveforms at

di€ erent applied forward currents IF.

5. Conclusions
The charge-control equation in the standard diode model has been modi® ed to
allow more realistic simulation of diode reverse recovery characteristics. When further
enhanced with a charge-dependent resistance equation, this modi® ed diode model can
also simulate forward recovery characteristics. As only one extra parameter is required,
the increased complexity in the parameter extraction procedure is minimal. The modi-
® ed model has been successfully test-implemented in SPICE and Saber, without notice-
able degradation in run-time overheads and convergence properties. Strong
correlation between experimental and simulated results has so far been observed.
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