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The package CURRY offers a wide range of built‐in facilities for 2D device modelling of a large variety of structures such as MOS, bipolar and charge coupled devices. These capabilities will be illustrated on the transport of a charge package in a charge coupled device and on the simulation of the ESD ( Electro‐Static Discharge) in an MOS transistor. The CURRY package can also be used as a high quality kernel to which the user may add his own extensions by adding small pieces of Fortran code. The flexibility of this setup will be shown in the computation of the threshold voltage of an MOS transistor, in the computation of the I‐V curve of a diode in avalanche breakdown and in the computation of the open collector voltage of a bipolar transistor.

The transient simulation of integrated circuit has become very expensive in terms of computer time due to increase in the number of transistors in typical simulation. Spectral technique and Chebyshev polynomials offers an efficient alternative algorithm for simulation of integrated circuits. In this paper an automatic formulation of circuit elements and transistor models, built in MOS technology, for analysis using spectral technique is presented. The algorithm is implemented and the simulation is proven to require less computer time than in the case of SPICE or ASTAP

This paper describes a new two‐dimensional process simulation program MUSIC (MUltigrid Simulator for IC fabrication processes) which is prospective for the efficient IC process simulations due to its capability to eliminate strong bottlenecks present in the existing two‐dimensional process simulation programs. Multistep processes, including ion implantation, diffusion and oxidation, can be simulated, giving the doping profile. Robust and efficient adaptive multigrid numerical techniques for the simulation of coupled multiparticle diffusion processes are used. The capabilities of program MUSIC are illustrated by the results of the process flow simulation of a typical NMOS and bipolar transistors fabricated in BiCMOS technology.

Challenges to a robust and accurate implementation of electric‐field‐enhanccd thermal‐generation mechanisms in a drift‐diffusion‐based semiconductor‐device simulation code are discussed and solutions proposed. The implementation of the physical models and associated numerical methods is applied to the simulation of leakage currents in trench‐DRAM cells.

Proposes the application of novel control strategy in power transistors (insulated gate bipolar transistors – IGBT) based on AC/DC/AC converter with active filtering function. Seeks to investigate the possibilities of operating drive system under distorted line voltage with unity power factor and reduced dc‐link capacitor.

A novel control strategy is proposed based on direct power and direct torque control with space vectors modulators scheme which seems to be most promising. This method is investigated, implemented and examined in the laboratory setup. Different working conditions are taken into consideration.

Provides information how the proposed system works under motoring and regenerating modes. Good behaviors of the system in steady state in transience are shown. Very good stabilization of the dc‐link voltage under transient is achieved. Almost sinusoidal line current is obtained. Very good compensation of nonlinear load is also achieved.

This is not an exhaustive investigation. The system should be tested with different input inductances (or LCL filters) and with reduced dc‐link capacitor. Moreover, laboratory tests with higher power should be performed in the future.

A useful source of information and an example of how a fully controlled AC/DC/AC converter with active filtering function works. It could be an important basis for a prototype for industry.

Although the direct power control with space vector modulator (DPC‐SVM) and direct torque control with space vector modulator (DTC‐SVM) schemes have been described in the literature separately, it is analyzed for the first time and investigated together for control of the AC/DC/AC converter. Additionally, active filtering provides a feature of power compensation. It could be the basis for a clean power system design.

This paper intends to present a hydrodynamical model which describes the hole motion in silicon and couples holes and electrons.

The model is based on the moment method and the closure of the system of moment equations is obtained by using the maximum entropy principle (hereafter MEP). The heavy, light and split‐off valence bands are considered. The first two are described by taking into account their warped shape, while for the split‐off band a parabolic approximation is used.

The model for holes is coupled with an analogous one for electrons, so obtaining a complete description of charge transport in silicon. Numerical simulations are performed both for bulk silicon and a p‐n junction.

The model uses a linear approximation of the maximum entropy distribution in order to close the system of moment equations. Furthermore, the non‐parabolicity of the heavy and light bands is neglected. This implies an approximation on the high field results. This issue is under current investigation.

The paper improves the previous hydrodynamical models on holes and furnishes a complete model which couples electrons and holes. It can be useful in simulations of bipolar devices.

The results of the paper are new since a better approximation of the band structure is used and a description of both electron and hole behavior is present, therefore the results are of a certain relevance for the theory of charge transport in semiconductors.

The effects of polysilicon emitter on the high frequency performance of bipolar transistors have been investigated numerically. The presence of polysilicon grain boundaries was found to slow down the response of the device. This resulted in a lower fT for polysilicon emitter bipolar transistors with a clean polysilicon/ mono‐crystalline silicon interface compared to conventional transistors with an identical emitter‐base junction depth. The interfacial oxide layer that could exist at the polysilicon/mono‐crystalline silicon interface can, depending on the relative thickness of the polysilicon and mono‐crystalline silicon emitter regions, either improve or deteriorate the high frequency performance of the device. For a mono‐crystalline silicon emitter region that is much thinner than the polysilicon emitter region, the lower the tunnelling probability of the interfacial oxide layer the better is the improvement in fT. However, if the thickness of the mono‐crystalline silicon emitter region is made larger with respect to the polysilicon emitter region, the converse can be true.

A compound emitter heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) structure that incorporates an additional heterojunction within the emitter for minority carrier confinement has been proposed. In this new device configuration, the single wide band‐gap emitter layer in a conventional HBT is replaced by two sub‐layers of wide band‐gap material, with the sub‐layer nearer the base having a narrower band‐gap. By means of numerical simulations, the compound emitter HBT was found to perform better than comparable conventional HBTs. With the AlGaAs(n) / GaAs heterostructure system, the optimum compound emitter HBT structure was found to be Al0.3Ga0.7As(n) ‐ Al0. 2Ga0.8As(n) / GaAs with grading at the two hetero‐interfaces. It has a low turn‐on voltage that is almost identical to that of a homojunction GaAs bipolar transistor with similar doping conditions. Compared with a conventional single emitter layer Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs HBT, the optimum compound emitter HBT has an enhancement in the current gain by approximately 2 folds, an improvement in the uniform current gain region from 2 to 4 decades of collector current density, and a slight increase in the unity‐gain cut‐off frequency fT by about 7 %.

This paper presents a computer‐aided design (CAD) tool for the design of isolated dc‐dc converters.

This tool, developed in Matlab environment, is based on multiobjective optimization (MO) using genetic algorithms. The Elitist Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm is used to perform search and optimization whereas analytical models are used to model the power converters. The design problem requires minimizing the weight, losses and cost of the converter while ensuring the satisfaction of a number of constraints. The optimization variables are, as for them, the operating frequency, the current density, the maximum flux density, the transformer dimensions, the wire diameter, the core material, the conductor material, the converter topology (among Flyback, Forward, Push‐Pull, half‐bridge and full‐bridge topologies), the number of semiconductor devices associated in parallel, the number of cells associated in series or parallel as well as the kinds of input and output connections (serial or parallel) of these cells. Finally, the design of an auxiliary railway power supply is presented and discussed.

The results show that such tool to design dc‐dc power converters presents several advantages. In particular, it proposes to the designer a set of solutions – instead of a single one – so that he can choose a posteriori which solution best fits the application under consideration. Moreover, interesting solutions not considered a priori can be found with this tool.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, such a CAD tool including a MO procedure taking several topologies into account has not been suggested so far.

The purpose of this paper is to set up a consistent off‐equilibrium thermodynamic theory to deal with the self‐heating of electronic nano‐devices.

From the Bloch‐Boltzmann‐Peierls kinetic equations for the coupled system formed by electrons and phonons, an extended hydrodynamic model (HM) has been obtained on the basis of the maximum entropy principle. An electrothermal Monte Carlo (ETMC) simulator has been developed to check the above thermodynamic model.

A 1D n⁺−n−n⁺ silicon diode has been simulated by using the extended HM and the ETMC simulator, confirming the general behaviour.

The paper's analysis is limited to the 1D case. Future researches will also consider 2D realistic devices.

The non‐equilibrium character of electrons and phonons has been taken into account. In previous works, this methodology was used only for equilibrium phonons.