Course Description: This course offers complete introduction to semiclassical numerical modeling of semiconductor devices. Today, computer-aided design has become an affordable and, in fact, necessary tool for designing contemporary semiconductor devices. With emphasis on a variety of semiclassical numerical methods, this course provides basic concepts and design tools for analyzing discrete one/two/three-dimensional devices such as Schottky diodes, MESFETs, MOSFETs, BJTs, and HBTs.

Prerequisites:

• Knowledge of semiconductor device theory.
• Basic knowledge of linear algebra.
• Basic knowledge of some programming language or MATLAB.

Course Objectives:

1. To enable students to understand the principles of semiconductor transport as applied to understanding device operation from physical standpoint.
2. To enable students to perform analysis of device structures and behaviors using commercial modeling software.
3. To enable students to develop their own simulation software for modeling arbitrary device structures.
4. To enable students to compare their simulation results with available experimental data and improve the physics implemented.
5. To enable the students to predict the operation of novel device structures and, thus, help speed-up the design to production process

Course Topics:

The following topics will be covered in the order given.

1. Computational Electronics
2. Semiconductor Fundamentals
3. Empirical Pseudopotential Method
4. Distribution Function / BTE
5. Relaxation Time Approximation
6. Numerical Analysis Review
7. Introduction to Drift-Diffusion Model
8. Drift-Diffusion Model: Iterative Procedures and GR Processes
9. Scharfetter-Gummel Discretization, Time-Dependent Simulations
10. Drift-Diffusion Model and Padre Simulation of a PN Diode
11. Mobility Modeling
12. Need for Hydrodynamic Modeling: Straton's Approach
13. Hydrodynamic Modeling
14. Introduction to SILVACO
15. Modeling of BJT Device
 16. Modeling of MOSFET and SOI Devices
 17. Energy Balance and Lattice Temperature Models as Implemented in SILVACO
 18. Modeling of MEMORIES
 19. Modeling HEMTs with BLAZE
 20. BTE: Collision Integral
 21. BTE: Monte Carlo Method
 22. BTE: Ensemble Monte Carlo
 23. Pauli Exclusion Principle, Particle Interactions
 24. Monte Carlo Device Simulation
 25. Discrete Impurity Effects
 26. Fluctuations and Unintentional Dopants
 27. Quantum Effects: Gate Leakage
 28. Quantum Effects: QuantizationSearch

Textbooks:

Vasileska, D. and Goodnick, S. (2006). Computational Electronics. Morgan and Claypool, USA. Required

Tomizawa, Numerical Simulation of Submicron Semiconductor Devices. The Artech House Materials Science Library. Not required, but advisable to have.

S. Selberherr, Simulation of Semiconductor Devices and Processes. Springer-Verlag, Wien New York. Not required.

M. Lundstrom. Fundamentals of Carrier Transport. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000. Not required.