Impact of TCAD model parameters on optical and electrical characteristics of radiation-hard photodiode in 0.35bm CMOS technology

In this paper, a variability Design of Experiment (DoE) is performed on a radiation-hard photodiode structure in order to understand how the physical parameters of the device impact its spectral responsivity and dark current. The varied physical parameters describe the carrier mobility, lifetime, energy bandgap and recombination models. The electrical and optical performance of the device are simulated using TCAD software, as a function of varied physical parameters. The simulations are calibrated to the device measurements. The analysis of the design showed that the carrier lifetime is the most influencing parameter that impacts both the spectral responsivity and the dark current. Mobility parameters and Auger recombination parameters impact the spectral responsivity, while the energy bandgap at 340 K impacts the dark current. Finally, the model parameters that fit the measured dark current are obtained by the thorough variation simulations.