Non-isothermal scharfetter–gummel scheme for electro-thermal transport simulation in degenerate semiconductors

Abstract

Electro-thermal transport phenomena in semiconductors are described by the non-isothermal drift-diffusion system. The equations take a remarkably simple form when assuming the Kelvin formula for the thermopower. We present a novel, non-isothermal generalization of the Scharfetter–Gummel finite volume discretization for degenerate semiconductors obeying Fermi–Dirac statistics, which preserves numerous structural properties of the continuous model on the discrete level. The approach is demonstrated by 2D simulations of a heterojunction bipolar transistor.