Piezoelectric coupling to electron drift in compound semiconductors

In the present paper we model the majority carriers charge transfer process by surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in an n-channel device. We start by presenting the general semiconductor equations including the direct piezoelectric effect associated with the SAW by using the doping perturbation model. A finite differences solution in the frame of a travelling wave model allows a detailed calculation describing the charge transfer process. Both the charge capacity and the charge transfer inefficiency, which are important in terms of evaluating the device performance, are taken into account on studying the carrier distribution and calculating the potential barrier height that confines them. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.