THE FREE-BOUNDARY PROBLEM OF A SEMICONDUCTOR IN THERMAL-EQUILIBRIUM

The quasi-hydrodynamic model for semiconductor devices in thermal equilibrium admits in general solutions for which the electron or hole density vanish. These sets are called vacuum sets. In this paper estimates on the vacuum sets and a first step in the regularity of the free boundary of these sets are presented. Numerical examples, including error estimates for linear finite elements, for the devices diode, bipolar transistor and thyristor indicate that the free boundary is more regular than theoretically predicted.