1004 THE BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL, JULY 1957 



The most consistent results were obtained using horizontal zone refined 

 silicon. The open tube diffusion technique has sufficient control to satisfy 

 the fabrication requirements. j 



The magnitudes, voltage and temperature dependences of both the j 

 forward and reverse currents of silicon rectifiers can be explained by in- < 

 eluding a recombination level near the middle of the forbidden energy ; 

 gap. Design equations for the forward and reverse characteristic of a j 

 diode are presented for several important cases. The breakdown voltage { 

 of the high voltage devices was shown to be a function of the width of i 

 the high resistivity region. 



One unsolved problem is the surface limitation of breakdown voltage ' 

 and reverse currents. This has been observed to decrease the breakdowTi 

 voltages and increase the reverse currents to undesirable levels. 



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 



The authors wish to thank their colleagues for many helpful discus- 

 sions. Thanks are due Dr. R. N. Noyce of the Shockley Semiconductor 

 Laboratory for making his paper available before publication. 

 The work on zone refuied and compensated silicon was done by S. J. 

 Silverman. The floating zone material was supplied by H. E. Bridgers. 

 Much of the experimental work was done by A. R. Tretola, T. J. Vasko 

 and F. R. Lutchko. G J. Levenbach assisted with the statistical aspects. 



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