P–n junction isolation

p–n junction isolation is a method used to electrically isolate electronic components, such as transistors, on an integrated circuit (IC) by surrounding the components with reverse biased p–n junctions.

Introduction

By surrounding a transistor, resistor, capacitor or other component on an IC with semiconductor material which is doped using an opposite species of the substrate dopant, and connecting this surrounding material to a voltage which reverse-biases the p–n junction that forms, it is possible to create a region which forms an electrically isolated "well" around the component.

Operation

Assume that the semiconductor wafer is p-type material. Also assume a ring of n-type material is placed around a transistor, and placed beneath the transistor. If the p-type material within the n-type ring is now connected to the negative terminal of the power supply and the n-type ring is connected to the positive terminal, the 'holes' in the p-type region are pulled away from the p–n junction, causing the width of the nonconducting depletion region to increase. Similarly, because the n-type region is connected to the positive terminal, the electrons will also be pulled away from the junction.