Numerical methods for the hydrodynamic device model: subsonic flow

An introduction to the hydrodynamic model for semiconductor devices is presented. Special attention is paid to classifying the hydrodynamic PDE’s and analyzing their nonlinear wave structure. Numerical simulations of the ballistic diode using the hydrodynamic device model are presented, as an illustrative elliptic problem. The importance of nonlinear block iterative methods is emphasized. Arguments for existence of solutions and convergence of numerical methods are given for the case of subsonic electron flow.