Edge effect in ohmic contacts on high-resistivity semiconductors

Current increase due to edge effect in ohmic contacts was calculated by finite-element software in three-dimensional devices. The emphasis in this study is on semi-intrinsic (SI) and compensated high resistivity semiconductors. It was found that the enhanced electric field around the contact edges may cause about twofold increase in the total contact current. For contact radii larger than the device thickness and nano scale contacts the impact is considerably reduced. In nanoscale contacts the edge effect does not control the electric field under the entire contact, but rather decreases. The introduction of velocity saturation model has a limited impact, and only in compensated semiconductors.