A large project (START) on "Simulation of Advanced Semiconductor Devices" funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture (BMWK) through the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has entered into its second year. The project includes several research topics. In the module on novel materials and devices, special attention is paid to modeling of semiconductor material systems such as strained Si/SiGe, III-Nitrides, III-Antimonides.

There are several challenges which are specific for modeling and simulation of advanced high-frequency and/or high-power devices, such as heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) and high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The characterization of the physical properties of strained Si/SiGe and III-V compounds is required for wide ranges of material compositions, temperatures, doping concentrations, etc. Physics-based analytical models for the lattice, thermal, band-structure, and transport properties of various semiconductor materials, as well as models for important high-field and high-doping effects taking place in the devices, are derived and implemented in the device simulator Minimos-NT.

The module on advanced transport models for nanoscale devices is currently focused on III-V nanowire-based devices, where the carrier evolution is dominated by quantum effects. A Wigner transport model has been derived which, along with spatial quantum effects, accounts for quantum dissipative processes due to phonons. A model-based Monte Carlo simulator has been developed and applied by utilizing GRID technologies to investigate the transport process.