Influence of lateral current spreading on the apparent barrier parameters of inhomogeneous Schottky diodes

The influence of the series resistance of inhomogeneous Schottky diodes on the apparent barrier parameters in three different arrangements was studied. It is shown that when there is a total current spreading in the semiconductor substrate the ideality factor of the diode remains unity and the extracted series resistance is equal to the real value. On the other hand a lack of current spreading in the substrate results in the different voltage drops on the particular series resistances which causes different actual voltages on the particular diodes. The ideality factor nonequal to unity and the apparent series resistance different from the real value of the resistances are then the results of the barrier parameter extraction.