Analysis of Microelectronic and Photonic Structure in Three Dimensions

Nowadays, computer modeling provides a fantastic tool to decrease cost, optimize design, and reduce turnaround times of any product. Analysis of microelectronic and photonic structure – 1D (AMPS-1D) presents one of many attempts to unite numerical modeling and the physics of photovoltaic (PV) cell into one software package where the PV device model appears as a planar, layer-by-layer cell. This idealized dimension-lacking structure cannot provide any realistic data for advancement in this field. Thus, there is a need to extend AMPS to 3-D, and a unit cell approach allows the equations to be solved in this volume subject to appropriate periodic boundary conditions. Utilizing ideas from drift and diffusion transport theory, a system of Poisson’s equation, and the continuity equations of electron and hole current density can be self-consistently solved while considering all recombination mechanisms such as band-to-band, Shockley-Read-Hall, and Auger. The computed solutions can be processed into photovoltaic action results.