ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews important electrical properties of semiconductor materials and pn junctions with special emphasis on the temperature dependencies of these properties. It assumes that the reader has some familiarity with elementary semiconductor device physics, but that it will be useful to focus on how important parameters vary with temperature for different semiconductors. The chapter considers the operation of bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), emphasizing their temperature-dependent aspects, and briefly reviews work from the literature addressing BJT use at very high temperatures. It reviews metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) operation, emphasizing temperature-dependent aspects. The chapter focuses on the operation of commercial-grade silicon power devices in power converters operating at ambient temperatures up to 200°C. The size of the bandgap plays an important role in high temperature performance of semiconductors, with the direct/indirect distinction playing an important role as well.
