Electrothermal transients due to self heating in a silicon p-n diode

The method of calculating the junction-temperature response and the nonisothermal transient i/v characteristics for a silicon forward-biased p-n diode is presented in this paper. The proposed method is based on the iterative calculation procedure, in which a diode is assumed to be subjected to a current or voltage waveform. This is in contrast with other methods, in which a temperature-indepenmdent power-input function, seldom met in practice, is assumed. As an example, calculations of the voltage across the diode and of the junction temperature for some given current inputs i(t) have been performed according to the presented method, and the results are discussed.