A simple new model for the saturation velocity and the voltage dependency of leakage current

The drift velocity saturation of electrons and holes is a very important phenomenon in a high electric field operation. The author has found that the generation rate, usually recognized as constant, generally increases proportionally to electric field strength. The leakage current might seem to have no relation to saturation velocities, but both are high electric field phenomena. The author introduces two concepts to explain the increasing generation rate: carriers, electrons and holes, move much faster than their saturation velocities between each collision with the semiconductor lattice; and the actual speed is proportional to the applied electric field strength. A new model of the saturation velocity for electrons and holes could result from these concepts and the conservation law of momentum. The calculated values are consistent with experimental data for Silicon and GaAs and are about 50% higher for Germanium