Transient Electro - Thermal Coupling Analysis Of PIN Diode Limiter

In the future high-tech war, the control of the information will become more and more important. Therefore, the communication systems may be more easily attacked by high-power microwave weapons. As an important component in the limiter circuit in the front end of the receiver, PIN diodes are more susceptible to be attacked by high-power electromagnetic pulse. So, the analysis for PIN diodes’ transient characteristics will help comprehending the mechanism of the damage. It will also help strengthening the electromagnetic protection of radar receivers.In this thesis, a numerical PIN diode model was established for simulation. Compared with analytical model, numerical model is more suitable for analyzing the distribution of the internal physical quantities of semiconductor devices in depth. Firstly, based on drift-diffusion equations and heat flow equation, the transient equation for PIN diodes was derived by using the spectral-element time-domain method(SETD). The forward-reverse feature of PIN diodes was validated by computing an example with a sinusoidal voltage. The distribution of the temperature in PIN diode was computed, In addition, the transient behavior of carriers in PIN diodes was analyzed.Secondly, the principle of the second-breakdown of PIN diodes was introduced. The damage caused by current in PIN diodes was analyzed with the electric-thermal method. Through the discussion about the mechanism of burnout in PIN diodes, the thesis concluded that the negative voltage might cause the burnout both in P region and N region.Finally, the numerical PIN diode model was combined with Kirchhoff s current law and Kirchhoff s voltage law. The output voltage of the limiter inputting several high power sinusoidal sources was got by Newton iteration method. The transient behavior of carriers in PIN diodes was analyzed. The duration of the spike leakage was discussed. The power of the spike leakage from double diodes limiter is lower than that from single diode limiter. And the damage of PIN diodes caused by high power microwave is also analyzed.