Transient Simulation of Semiconductor Devices Using a Deterministic Boltzmann Equation Solver

Abstract

In this paper, the transient simulation of semiconductor devices using a deterministic Boltzmann equation solver is presented. Transient simulation capability is implemented in a deterministic Boltzmann equation solver for the 3-D momentum space based on the spherical harmonics expansion. The numerical simulation results with implicit time marching methods demonstrate that the transient simulation using a deterministic Boltzmann equation solver can be performed. The impact of the quasi-static approximation for the current density, which is widely adopted in the momentum-based equations, is tested for various devices such as homogeneous samples, an N+NN+ structure and an MOSFET.

Keywords

• Semiconductor device modeling
• transient simulation
• Boltzmann transport equation
• deterministic Boltzmann equation solver
• spherical harmonics expansion