Sentaurus Technology Template:

Simulation of a GaN Light-Emitting Diode

Abstract
This Sentaurus TCAD template provides an example of a GaN light-emitting diode
(LED) simulation. Two experiments for different device configurations are
considered. Scheme functions are used to create the layered multimaterial LED
structure. The simulation uses a dual-grid approach with two dedicated meshes used
for electrical and optical simulation. Raytracing is used for the optical simulation.
Standard optical and electric characteristics of the devices are obtained and
visualized.
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Copyright © 2007 Synopsys, Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction Sentaurus Device: CalcIVL
Various types of optoelectronic device can be simulated The name of the instance of Sentaurus Device is CalcIVL.
with the Sentaurus TCAD suite of tools. In particular, a Electro-optical simulation is performed here. A number of
comprehensive set of carrier and heat transport models, rays per vertex used by the optical solver is set by the
coupled to various optical models, allows the simulation of Sentaurus Workbench parameter NoRays:
light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
„ NoRays is set here to 20.
An example of a Sentaurus TCAD setup for a simulation of „ Eg0_InGaN is a band gap–related parameter used in
a GaN LED is presented in this template. The device the preprocessing of parameter files.
characteristics such as emission spectrum, voltage, power,
„ mh_InGaN is a hole mass–related parameter used in
and quantum efficiency dependencies on the current are
the preprocessing of parameter files.
obtained. A two-dimensional structure is used to allow the
user to quickly become familiar with the details of the LED
simulation setup, to compare results for various parameters, Inspect: PlotSpectrum, PlotIVL, PlotIQE
and to further modify the setup as needed.
The spectrum, voltage, and power curves, as well as the
It is assumed that the user is familiar with the Sentaurus tool internal quantum efficiency depending on the driving
suite, in particular, Sentaurus Workbench, Sentaurus current, are extracted from the data calculated by Sentaurus
Structure Editor, Sentaurus Device, and Inspect. For an Device and plotted in these three nodes.
introduction and tutorials, refer to the Sentaurus training
material.
Tecplot SV: PlotRadiation
The focus of this project is to provide a setup that can be
adapted to specific needs. The documentation focuses on The far-field radiation pattern from the LED is visualized in
aspects of the setup. For details about tool uses and specific the PlotRadiation node.
tool syntax, refer to the respective manuals.
Tool-specific setups
General simulation setup
Device generation using Sentaurus
The simulation is organized as a Sentaurus Workbench Structure Editor and Sentaurus Mesh
project. The tool flow of the project is discussed here. It
consists of Sentaurus Structure Editor to create the LED
Sentaurus Structure Editor is used to define the LED
structure, Sentaurus Device where the electrical and optical
structure in a parameterized manner. The device consists of
device simulations are performed, and the visualization
several layers of different materials. The creation of the
tools Inspect and Tecplot SV.
LED structure is facilitated through the use of lists
containing layer parameters and the Scheme functions
Sentaurus Structure Editor processing them. This approach is applied to generate two
structures and grids that are subsequently used in the
The LED structure is created with analytic doping profiles electrical and optical simulations.
and appropriate mesh refinements. The simulation is
divided into experiments controlled by a Sentaurus Electrical structure and mesh generation
Workbench parameter atonBottomWidth, giving the
bottom width of the structure: The following lists are defined and contain:
„ atonBottomWidth [μm] is set here to 190 and 290. „ regions: Region names of respective layers.
„ materials: Respective materials.
For both experiments, different optical and electrical grids
are created and stored in the TDR format file, which is then „ dopings: Respective constant n-doping (positive
passed to Sentaurus Device. values) and p-doping (negative values) concentrations
–3
(in cm ).
„ heights: Heights.
„ widths: Widths.
„ xmoles: Mole fraction (used for some materials).

Copyright © 2007 Synopsys, Inc. All rights reserved. 3

„ yrefs: Minimum refinement element size (in y- • dir: Direction of grading factor; can be set to up,
direction) used in a 2D refinement window. If set to no, down, or both. For both, two multiboxes are set.
then no refinement is set.
„ layer:define-refinement-2d: Creates a 2D
„ minboxels: Defines minimum refinement element refinement window and uses the arguments:
size (in y-direction) in a multibox. If set to no, no • name: Region name.
multibox is associated with the respective layer or • pos1: Refinement rectangle corner coordinate.
region.
• pos2: Refinement rectangle corner coordinate.
„ boxratios: Grading factor in y-direction used in the • max_x: x-direction maximum refinement size.
respective multibox. • max_y: y-direction maximum refinement size.
„ boxdirs: Set to up, down, or both, defining a sign • min_x: x-direction minimum refinement size.
of the respective multibox grading ratio, that is, ‘+’, or • min_y: y-direction minimum refinement size.
‘-’, or two multiboxes are used with both positive and
negative grading factors, respectively. „ layer:define-global-refinement-2d:
Defines a rectangular global refinement window. The
The structure consists of thirteen layers including four size of the window is determined automatically to
In0.4Ga0.6N quantum wells separated by GaN barriers. A encompass all entities:
silicon-carbide spacer is added to the bottom of the layered • max_x: x-direction maximum refinement size.
structure and is controlled by a number of additional • max_y: y-direction maximum refinement size.
geometry parameters as commented in the sde_dvs.cmd • min_x: x-direction minimum refinement size.
command file.
• min_y: y-direction minimum refinement size.
The following functions are defined with a Scheme „ define-contacts: Creates the electrical contacts.
construct: „ create-top-contact: Creates the top contact.
(define <function> „ create-aton: Creates an ATON structure.
(lambda (<argument list>)
(begin
<procedures> The latter function uses standard Sentaurus Structure Editor
) functions for the creation of polygons and rectangles as well
) functions defined above for the creation of doping and
) multiboxes.

to be later used for structure creation (refer to the Sentaurus After these functions are defined, the electrical structure and
training material for more information on the use of Scheme grid are created with the following:
scripts).
(define y 0)
„ layer:create-doping: Using standard Sentaurus (define FID (open-output-file
Workbench functions, it creates constant region-based "n@node@_AxisAligned.txt")
doping given two arguments: )
(define AxisAligned "AxisAligned { yCuts = ( ")
• name: Region name.
• doping: Doping value. (for-each
(lambda (region material height width
„ layer:create-xmole: Similar to the previous doping xmole yref minboxel boxratio boxdir)
function, it creates the XMoleFraction profile. (begin
• name: Region name. (sdegeo:create-rectangle
(position 0 y 0.0)
• xmole: XMoleFraction value.
(position width (+ y height) 0.0)
„ layer:create-multibox: Creates a region-based material region)
multibox refinement using the arguments: ...
)
• region: Region name. ) regions materials heights widths
• y: y-coordinate of a refinement window boundary. dopings xmoles yrefs minboxels boxratios boxdirs
• height: Refinement window height; also used as a )
maximum refinement size.
(set! AxisAligned (string-append AxisAligned " ) }"))
• width: Refinement window width; also used as a (display AxisAligned FID)
maximum and minimum refinement size. (close-output-port FID)
• min_el_size: Minimum refinement size in y- (sdedr:append-cmd-file "n@node@_AxisAligned.txt")
direction. (define semi_d y)

• ratio: Absolute value of y-grading factor.

4 Copyright © 2007 Synopsys, Inc. All rights reserved.

 (create-aton) ;add aton to structure
(create-top-contact) ;add top contact to structure
(define-contacts) 0.25

0.26
The for-each Scheme function loops through
components in the lists regions, materials, and so on, 0.27
assigning their values to its respective local variables
0.28
region, material, and so on, and executing its body

Y [µm]
functions (omitted here) for all the regions and other 0.29
parameters in the lists.
0.3

Due to the algorithm requirements in Sentaurus Device, the 0.31

mesh associated with the quantum wells must have exactly
0.32
one horizontal line in the middle of the well. Therefore, the
AxisAligned section is written into the mesh command
18.11 18.12 18.13 18.14 18.11 18.12 18.13 18.14
file, forcing grid lines to coincide with the layer boundaries X [µm] X [µm]
of the quantum wells as well as the center of the quantum
Figure 2 Same as Figure 1, but magnification of active region; green
well. represents quantum-well layers

Finally, after some additional global refinements are

Device simulation using Sentaurus Device
specified:
(layer:define-global-refinement-2d 40 40 0 20 20 0) Sentaurus Device is used to ramp the input voltage and
(layer:define-refinement-2d "aroundContactEdge" obtain the dependencies characterizing the device. Both the
(position (- r_front_contact 10) -0.1 0)
(position (+ r_front_contact 10) (+ qw_end_d 0.1) 0)
electronic problem concerned with the carrier distributions
2 0.02 1 0.01) and the transport and optical problems must be addressed in
this simulation.
the boundary, mesh command file, and the meshed structure
are written: As previously mentioned, the device simulation uses a dual-
grid approach. Although both single-grid and dual-grid
(sdeio:save-tdr-bnd (get-body-list)
LED simulations can be set, the latter approach saves CPU
"n@node@_el_bnd.tdr")
(sdedr:write-cmd-file "n@node@_el_msh.cmd") time. If raytracing, used in the optical part of the problem, is
(system:command "snmesh n@node@_el_msh") defined on the fine mesh (as required by the electrical
simulation), the number of rays can increase dramatically
Optical structure and mesh generation during propagation through material interfaces leading to
demanding computer memory/CPU requirements. This
The optical structure generation uses a similar approach as problem is avoided when the coarse optical grid is set up in
that used for the electrical structure, except that the four addition to the fine electrical grid. A coarse mesh enables
quantum-well regions are substituted with one effective users to compute the extraction efficiency and output
region called QW_eff, and only the global refinement is radiation pattern in a relatively quick manner.
used. The resulting structures are shown in Figure 1 and
Figure 2. Two device sections are used in the dual-grid approach. The
optical device section:
0
OpticalDevice optDevice {
File {
50 Grid = "n@previous@_op_msh.tdr"
Plot = "n@node@_oop_@tdrdat@"
}
100
}
Y [µm]

150 and the electrical device section:

Device elDevice {
200 Electrode {...}
File {...}
Plot {...}
250
Physics {...}
}
0 50 100 0 50 100
X [µm] X [µm]

Figure 1 Electrical structure (left) and optical structure (right)

Copyright © 2007 Synopsys, Inc. All rights reserved. 5

specifying the different input files. The latter section also „ RaysRandomOffset: Randomizes the initial angle
contains the output variables in the Plot section and the of an emitted ray (by default, the angle of emitted rays
physical models in the Physics section. is determined by the nodes vertex number).
„ Broadening (Type=CosHyper
The optical and electronic parts of the equations are linked
Gamma=0.03): Broadening model used for the gain
using the gain and optical generation and recombination
calculation.
calculations. The optical models relevant to the LED
simulations are invoked in the LED part of the Physics
Additional parameters related to the physics of quantum
section. The subsequent Optics subsection should contain
wells (such as strain and scattering times) are set as well.
information about the optical solver used. The size of the
The appropriate recombination models are defined in
LED practically prohibits the use of electromagnetic
additional Physics sections, both regionwise and
methods, and a feasible remaining option is to use a
material-wise.
raytracing method. The overall thickness of semiconductor
layers in typical LEDs is of the order of at least a few
Refer to the Sentaurus Device User Guide, in particular the
micrometers, that is, much bigger than the wavelength.
chapter on laser and LED simulations, for detailed
Therefore, the geometric optics approximation is good.
information about various simulation options as well as the
Raytracing is activated with the keyword RayTrace:
device physics and parameter tuning.
Physics {...
LED (... The electronic and optical problems are coupled through the
Optics (... keyword PhotonRate added in the Coupled statement
RayTrace(...
in the Solve section. This is in addition to the usual
)
) electrical transport equations and quantum-well scattering
) equations describing quantum-well carrier capture
} processes:
Coupled {Circuit Contact
In this setup, the following models are activated in the LED Electron Hole Poisson
section: QWhScatter QWeScatter
PhotonRate}
„ SponScaling: Specifies the scaling factor for the
spontaneous emission coefficient.
The LED structure is embedded in a serial circuit with a
„ TraceSource(): Used to find the source of the resistor load and a voltage source as set in the System
output rays that give the strongest ray output; this section:
facilitates visualization of active regions.
System {
„ Print: Prints all of the rays into a grid. elDevice d1 ( anode=vdd cathode=vc ) { Physics {
OptSolver="opt" } }
„ Symmetry = Symmetric: Places a reflective Vsource_pset drive(vdd gnd) { dc = 1 }
boundary at x=0. Resistor_pset rp(vdd vc) {resistance = 1e10}
Resistor_pset rs(vc gnd) {resistance = 30}
„ Coordinates = Cartesian: Specifies the
Plot "n@node@_sys.plt" (vdd i(rs gnd) v(vdd vc)
coordinate system (can also be set to Cylindrical). i(d1 vc))
„ SemAbsorption (model = ODB): Switches on Set (gnd = 0.0)
optDevice opt ()
the absorption coefficient model. In this case, it is
}
directed to use the ODB section of the parameter file,
where the wavelength dependence is contained.
In the Solve section, the drive voltage is ramped to 6.5 V.
„ RefractiveIndex(model = ODB): Switches on The data output during the simulation is visualized with
the refractive coefficient model. In this case, it is Inspect. This is discussed in Visualization with Inspect on
directed to use the ODB section of the parameter file. page 7.
„ depthlimit = 20: Terminates the ray after it
crosses 20 material boundaries. Parameter files
„ RaysPerVertex = 20: Specifies the number of
Materials used for optical devices are often ternary or
rays per vertex.
quaternary alloys, with parameters depending on the mole
„ minIntensity = 1e-5: Terminates the ray if its fraction of the composites. The default piecewise cubic
–5
associated intensity drops by a factor of 1 × 10 . spline parameter interpolation method, over a range of mole
„ LEDRadiationPara(10000,36): Specifications fractions, is not always a convenient description of such
for the LED radiation pattern, including observation dependencies. On the other hand, simple empirical analytic
distance and the number of points on the circle. dependencies of parameters on the mole fraction are often

6 Copyright © 2007 Synopsys, Inc. All rights reserved.

known. In such cases, it is advantageous to use these
analytic formulas through the Tcl interface of Sentaurus
Device. In this template, the following approach is used.
The standard parameter file sdevice.par contains the
following text:

Spontaneous Emission [a.u.]

!(cd @pwd@)! 4

Material = "AlGaN" {
#include "./par/AlGaN_GaN.tcl"
}

Material = "GaN" {Insert = "./par/GaN.par"} 2

Material = "InGaN" {
#include "./par/InGaN_GaN.tcl"
}
0
During the preprocessing step, Sentaurus Workbench reads 420 440 460 480
the par/AlGaN_GaN.tcl file and executes the Tcl Wavelength [nm]
blocks there. For example, the mole fraction x of Al, set Figure 3 Spontaneous emission spectrum for the LED with (blue) and
without (red) pyramidal structure at the bottom
through the global variable xmole_AlGaN (previously
defined in Sentaurus Structure Editor input), is set by the
The foreach Tcl loop is used in the
Tcl block:
PlotIsp_ins.cmd input file to scale the wavelength to
!( nanometers:
set x @xmole_AlGaN@
)! proj_load "d1_n10_el_gain_des.plt" PLT($N)

set x_data [proj_getDataSet "PLT($N)" "Wavelength"]

Then, the dielectric permittivity is obtained using: set y_data [proj_getDataSet "PLT($N)"
Epsilon { "SpontEmission"]
!(
set perm_AlN 8.5 set inc 0
set perm_GaN 8.9 foreach j $x_data {
set perm_AlGaN [expr $perm_AlN*$x+$perm_GaN*(1-$x)] lset x_data $inc [expr $j*1e9]
)! incr inc
}
Other parameters are obtained in the similar manner and are
cv_createFromScript Isp($N) "$x_data" "$y_data" y
written into parameter files of corresponding Sentaurus
Device nodes. The Sentaurus Workbench parameters
Figure 4 demonstrates the driving voltage and power
Eg0_InGaN and mh_InGaN are also used here in
dependency on the electrical current.
preprocessing the parameter files.
6
2.5
Visualization with Inspect
5
Standard Inspect commands (with some simple Tcl loops 2
Optical Power [mW]

for scaling some variables to more common units) are used

in the Inspect nodes to plot the current-dependent and 4
Voltage [V]

1.5
wavelength-dependent characteristics of the device. These
are shown in Figure 3 to Figure 5 on page 8.
3 1
Figure 3 shows the spontaneous emission spectrum.

2 0.5

1 0
0 20 40 60 80
Current [mA]
Figure 4 Drive voltage and power versus electrical current; the
characteristics do not depend on the bottom width of the device

Copyright © 2007 Synopsys, Inc. All rights reserved. 7

Finally, the dependence of internal quantum efficiency is
shown in Figure 5. As expected, the pyramidal structure in
the bottom of the LED makes it more efficient.

0.55

0.5

0.45
Efficiency [%]

0.4

0.35

0.3

0 0.05
Current [A]
Figure 5 Internal quantum efficiency versus electrical current for the LED
with (blue) and without (red) the pyramidal structure at the bottom

8 Copyright © 2007 Synopsys, Inc. All rights reserved.