Surface discharge phenomena of silicon in atmospheric air

Semiconductor devices are being gradually applied in the fields of high-voltage and high-power technology, and thus the high-field characteristics of semiconducting materials have been paid much attention. However, its development meets the limitation of surface discharge/flashover. Based on the measurement of voltage and current waveforms and the optical observation, the surface phenomena across silicon samples were preliminarily investigated under pulsed excitation in atmosphere. Moreover, its discharge behaviors are compared with that of insulating epoxy resin. It is suggested that there was current filament phenomena occurred inside the silicon resulted from the inhomogeneity of injected current density and Joule heating effect, which strongly affect the surface discharge phenomena of semiconductor and liable for its behaviors different from insulating materials.