Monte Carlo Device Simulation

Monte Carlo simulation is now a well established method for studying semiconductor devices and is particularly well suited to highlighting physical mechanisms and exploring material properties. Not surprisingly, the more completely the material properties are built into the simulation, up to and including the use of a full band structure, the more powerful is the method. Indeed, it is now becoming increasingly clear that phenomena such as reliabil­ ity related hot-electron effects in MOSFETs cannot be understood satisfac­ torily without using full band Monte Carlo. The IBM simulator DAMOCLES, therefore, represents a landmark of great significance. DAMOCLES sums up the total of Monte Carlo device modeling experience of the past, and reaches with its capabilities and opportunities into the distant future. This book, therefore, begins with a description of the IBM simulator. The second chapter gives an advanced introduction to the physical basis for Monte Carlo simulations and an outlook on why complex effects such as collisional broadening and intracollisional field effects can be important and how they can be included in the simulations. References to more basic intro­ the book. The third chapter ductory material can be found throughout describes a typical relationship of Monte Carlo simulations to experimental data and indicates a major difficulty, the vast number of deformation poten­ tials required to simulate transport throughout the entire Brillouin zone. The fourth chapter addresses possible further extensions of the Monte Carlo approach and subtleties of the electron-electron interaction.