Semiconductor Devices: A Simulation Approach - Hardcover

Kramer, Kevin M.; Hitchon, W. Nicholas G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 013614330X ISBN 13: 9780136143307

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 1997

Synopsis

Semiconductor design is a multi-billion dollar industry, with huge investments at stake in every new design. To save money, simulation has become a critical part of the semiconductor design cycle. This book arms the designer with the mathematical and physical knowledge needed to implement effective semiconductor simulations. The accompanying CD-ROM features the fully-functioning SimGen simulation software for modeling semiconductor devices and applications.The book begins with an introduction to the essentials of physics and numerical analysis as they relate to semiconductor simulation. It introduces both electromagnetism and transport processes. Part II focuses on the SimGen software, which makes it dramatically easier to solve semiconductor transport equations. Part III reviews the analytic theory associated with each major semiconductor device, and compares the theory to simulations. Finally, Part IV introduces more advanced topics in device simulation, including mixed-mode simulations and simulation of power semiconductor devices.For all semiconductor device designers and researchers, both experimental and theoretical.

About this title

Review

To most circuit designers, semiconductor devices are simple circuit elements that are treated as little black boxes. However, from a physics-based perspective, semiconductor devices are very complicated structures that require a good deal of intricate mathematics for their description.

This book takes the latter route, providing a very detailed elucidation of the mathematical methods that are employed in the study of semiconductor devices. The material is developed from the basic roots of semiconductor physics in electromagnetism and transport theory, extended to the techniques that are used to apply the mathematics to discrete structures, and applied to the examination of specific semiconductor devices. The discussion is very complete, handling in good balance the physics, mathematics, and implementation methods of device simulation.

A particularly enjoyable aspect of this text is the opening three-page section, "Why Simulation?" Virtually every aspect of modern integrated-circuit development and design involves the use of a variety of simulation tools: although this book addresses only a small subset of simulation interests, the points made here should be read by anyone who uses simulation tools in their work. The authors clearly understand that simulation serves an important but limited role, and that while simulation tools can be invaluable in the right hands, they can be downright dangerous in the wrong hands.

Virtually the entire text concerns "standard" fluid-like methods that are used in popular device simulators, such as PISCES. Kinetic methods, such as Monte Carlo simulation, are only considered in passing in a final chapter; an expansion of this discussion, along with some examples of situations where kinetic methods are very useful, would be a good addition to a future version.

The only real drawback of this book is that it will address a rather limited audience. A text of this type is likely to be of heavy use to those who develop numerical semiconductor device simulation packages, or those who use them extensively and require detailed information about what is "under the hood" of the simulation packages that are used. However, anyone in this audience, or anyone who would like to learn more about how these detailed simulation methods are constructed, will profit from this book. -- IEEE Circuits and Devices, volume 14, number 6, November 1998

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 013614330X
• ISBN 13: 9780136143307
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 707