TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– To present a new direct solution method for the Boltzmann‐Poisson system for simulating one‐dimensional semiconductor devices.Design/methodology/approach– A combination of finite difference and finite element methods is applied to deal with the differential operators in the Boltzmann transport equation. By taking advantage of a piecewise polynomial approximation of the electron distribution function, the collision operator can be treated without further simplifications. The finite difference method is formulated as a third order WENO approach for non‐uniform grids.Findings– Comparisons with other methods for a well‐investigated test case reveal that the new method allows faster simulations of devices without losing physical information. It is shown that the presented model provides a better convergence behaviour with respect to the applied grid size than the Minmod scheme of the same order.Research limitations/implications– The presented direct solution methods provide an easily extensible base for other simulations in 1D or 2D. By modifying the boundary conditions, the simulation of metal‐semiconductor junctions becomes possible. By applying a dimension by dimension approximation models for two‐dimensional devices can be obtained.Practical implications– The new model is an efficient tool to acquire transport coefficients or current‐voltage characteristics of 1D semiconductor devices due to short computation times.Originality/value– New grounds have been broken by directly solving the Boltzmann equation based on a combination of finite difference and finite elements methods. This approach allows us to equip the model with the advantages of both methods. The finite element method assures macroscopic balance equations, while the WENO approximation is well‐suited to deal with steep gradients due to the doping profiles. Consequently, the presented model is a good choice for the fast and accurate simulation of one‐dimensional semiconductor devices.
VL  - 24
IS  - 4
SN  - 0332-1649
DO  - 10.1108/03321640510615634
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/03321640510615634
AU  - Domaingo A.
AU  - Galler M.
AU  - Schürrer F.
PY  - 2005
Y1  - 2005/01/01
TI  - A combined multicell‐WENO solver for the Boltzmann‐Poisson system of 1D semiconductor devices
T2  - COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 1311
EP  - 1327
Y2  - 2024/04/19
ER  -