Device Simulation using Symmetric Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

We have applied symmetric smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SSPH) to electronic structure calculations for high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). In layered structures such as field effect transistors (FETs), and especially HEMTs, the current density is mainly dependent on the electron mobility and the electronic field near the gate, where both can be taken to be constant. The relation between the channel current and the applied gate voltage can be obtained by a one-dimensional calculation. Then, it is easy to apply SSPH to evaluate the simple quantum properties of a device. We mainly focus on the I-V characteristics, which are typical device features. The electronic structure of a HEMT was calculated using both SSPH and finite-difference (FD) methods. The results from SSPH calculations are in good agreement with those from the FD method, and the accuracy of SSPH is similar to that of FD. In a simple example, where three particles are employed in the SSPH domain, we show there is an equivalence to the three-point method in FD.