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Computational study of Fermi kinetics transport applied to large-signal RF device simulations

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Abstract

A detailed description and analysis of the Fermi kinetics transport (FKT) equations for simulating charge transport in semiconductor devices is presented. The fully coupled nonlinear discrete FKT equations are elaborated, as well as solution methods and work-flow for the simulation of RF electronic devices under large-signal conditions. The importance of full-wave electromagnetics is discussed in the context of high-speed device simulation, and the meshing requirements to integrate the full-wave solver with the transport equations are given in detail. The method includes full semiconductor band structure effects to capture the scattering details for the Boltzmann transport equation. The method is applied to high-speed gallium nitride devices. Finally, numerical convergence and stability examples provide insight into the mesh convergence behavior of the deterministic solver.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Award Number FA9550-17RYCOR495 and the AF STTR Program (# FA8650-16-C-1764). Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. This paper describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Energy or the United States Government. SAND Number: SAND2018-9525 J.

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  1. Nicholas C. Miller

    Present address: Air Force Research Laboratory, Sensors Directorate, 2241 Avionics Circle, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, 45433, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, 428 S. Shaw Lane, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Nicholas C. Miller & John D. Albrecht

  2. Air Force Research Laboratory, Sensors Directorate, 2241 Avionics Circle, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, 45433, USA

    Matt Grupen

  3. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 87185-1189, USA

    Kris Beckwith

  4. Tech-X Corporation, 5621 Arapahoe Avenue Suite A, Boulder, CO, 80303, USA

    David Smithe

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Miller, N.C., Grupen, M., Beckwith, K. et al. Computational study of Fermi kinetics transport applied to large-signal RF device simulations. J Comput Electron 17, 1658–1675 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-018-1242-5

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