Electro-thermal behaviour of a sub-micron silicon diode

Abstract

High electric fields, that are characteristic of sub-micron devices, produce highly energetic electrons, lack of equilibrium between electrons and phonons and high rates of heat generation. This regime can be described using an extended hydrodynamic model, which is formed by a set of conservation laws of hyperbolic-type with stiff relaxation terms. In order to overcome this numerical difficulty, an implicit–explicit Runge–Kutta scheme has been used for the time integration. Simulation results for an n+–n–n+ silicon diode are presented.