An adaptive grid refinement strategy for the drift-diffusion equations

Author

Bürgler, Josef F. ; Coughran, William M., Jr. ; Fichtner, Wolfgang

Author_Institution

Integrated Syst. Lab., Swiss Federal Inst. of Technol., Zurich, Switzerland

Volume

10

Issue

10

fYear

1991

fDate

10/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1251

Lastpage

1258

Abstract

A method of computing the error in the solution of the semiconductor current continuity equations as well as the error in the terminal currents is proposed. An appropriate error indicator is developed based on a divergence free upwinding (finite element) discretization. The grid used for discretization is adapted to the error in the solution by dynamically adding or removing grid points in order to improve the solution and thus the terminal currents. The examples indicate that it is sufficient only for a reverse-biased p-n junction to refine the grid according to the error in the Poisson equation. In the forward biased case, it is necessary to take into account the error in the current continuity equation in order to guarantee exact terminal currents

Keywords

digital simulation; electronic engineering computing; error analysis; finite element analysis; semiconductor device models; Poisson equation; adaptive grid refinement strategy; discretization; divergence free upwinding; drift-diffusion equations; error indicator; finite element; forward biased junction; reverse-biased p-n junction; semiconductor current continuity equations; terminal currents; Computer errors; Convergence of numerical methods; Doping; Finite difference methods; Finite element methods; Grid computing; Mesh generation; Numerical simulation; P-n junctions; Poisson equations;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0278-0070

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/43.88921

Filename

88921