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An efficient numerical method for the solution of hot‐carrier transport equations describing transient processes in submicrometer semiconductor devices is proposed. The calculations of transient processes in submicrometer MOS transistor were carried out and compared with the results obtained by conventional drift‐diffusion model.

The use of energy balance and simplified hydrodynamic models for simulating GaAs devices is investigated. The simplified hydrodynamic model predicts velocity spikes that are not present in more detailed Monte Carlo simulation results. These velocity spikes are associated with overestimation of thermal diffusion. The simplified hydrodynamic model can predict terminal currents that are significantly lower than those predicted by the energy balance model. The differences between the models are significantly greater than those observed previously for silicon devices. The main conclusion of this study is that the energy balance model is preferable to the simplified hydrodynamic model as the basis for GaAs device simulation, but the energy balance model still needs refinement to improve the agreement with more general simulation and experimental results.

The purpose of this paper is to reply to the following question: do there exist piecewise smooth solutions to the 2D MEP hydrodynamical model of charge transport in semiconductors with smooth parts separated by a surface of strong discontinuity?

A standard approach is used to obtain jump conditions for the balance equations under consideration.

For the balance equations of charge transport in semiconductors based on the maximum entropy principle Rankine‐Hugoniot jump conditions were derived and studied. Considering the important case of planar discontinuity, the authors discuss the legitimacy of the introduction of surface charge and surface current in the Rankine‐Hugoniot jump conditions.

The jump conditions are derived for the balance equations written for the case of the parabolic approximation of energy bands. However, it is possible also to perform the analysis of corresponding jump conditions for the case of Kane dispersion relation approximation.

The paper presents derivation and study of Rankine‐Hugoniot jump conditions for the 2D MEP hydrodynamical model of charge transport in semiconductors.

Self‐consistent electrothermal simulation of modern semiconductor devices is required for the accurate and efficient design and optimization of many semiconductor devices. The need to perform this type analysis in order to predict the behavior of power devices was realized many years ago. It is now clear that nonisothermal analysis can be very important for VLSI devices as well.

On the basis of the maximum entropy principle, seeks to formulate a hydrodynamical model for electron transport in GaAs semiconductors, which is free of any fitting parameter.

The model considers the conduction band to be described by the Kane dispersion relation and includes both Γ and L valleys. Takes into account electron‐non‐polar optical phonon, electron‐polar optical phonon and electro‐acoustic phonon scattering.

The set of balance equation of the model forms a quasilinear hyperbolic system and for its numerical integration a recent high‐order shock‐capturing central differencing scheme has been employed.

Presents the results of simulations of n⁺ ‐n‐n⁺ GaAs diode and Gunn oscillator.

This paper presents a new discretization technique of the hydrodynamic energy balance model based on a finite‐element formulation. The concept of heat source lumping is introduced, and the thermal conductivity model includes the effect of varying both carrier concentrations and temperatures. The energy balance equation is formulated to account for kinetic energy as a convective flow. The new discretization method has the advantage that it allows for assembling the functions out of elementary variables available over elements instead of along element links. Therefore, theoretically, calculation of the Jacobian should be three times faster than by the classic method. Results are given for three examples. The method suffers from mathematical instabilities, but provides a good basis for future work to solve these problems.

A stationary 3D energy‐transport model valid for semiconductor heterostructure devices is derived from a semiclassical Boltznmann equation by the moment method. In addition to the well‐known conservation equations, we obtain original interface conditions, which are essential to have a mathematically well‐posed problem. An appropriate modelling of the physical parameters appearing in the system of equations is proposed for gallium arsenide. The model being written and its particularities mentioned, we present a novel numerical algorithm to solve it. The discretization of the equations is achieved by means of standard and mixed finite element methods. We apply the model and numerical algorithm to simulate a 2D AlGaAs/GaAs MODFET. Comparisons between expenrimental measurements and calculations are carried out. The influence of the modelling of the physical parameters, especially the electron mobility and the energy relaxation time, is noted. The results show the satisfactory behaviour of our model and numerical algorithm when applied to GaAs heterostructure devices.

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.

An energy balance equation model coupled with drift‐diffusion transport equations are solved in heterojunction p‐i‐n diodes with embedded single quantum well to model hot electron effects. A detailed formulation of hot electron transport is presented. In the well, the carrier energy levels are estimated from the analytical expressions applied to a quantum well with finite height. Both bound and free carriers are modeled by Fermi‐Dirac statistics. Both size quantization and the two dimensional density of states in the well are considered. Thermionic emission is applied to the heterojunctions and quantum wells boundary. Energy transfer among the charge carriers and crystal lattice is modeled by an energy relaxation lifetime. Two sets of devices are simulated. First, the simulated kinetic energy and carrier density profiles were compared with published Monte Carlo results on an GaAs n⁺/n/n⁺ diode. Second, the current‐voltage characteristics of an embedded single quantum well AlGaAs/GaAs p‐i‐n structure was compared with measured data. Both comparisons are satisfactory and demonstrate the usefulness of the model for studying quantum well structures.