Design and Optimization of Complex Nanoscale Electron Devices by Simulations with Quantum Transport Models

Integrated circuits which using complex nanoscale electron devices hold promise as a technology for ultra dense high speed integrated digital logic circuits. Especially the negative differential resistance of the current-voltage characteristic in resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) can be used to reduce device counts per circuit functions, thus increasing circuit integration density. In particular, devices which using RTD structures are attractive for applications in new computing architectures such as neuronal networks and cellular automata, in which even simple functions requires a large number of conventional transistors due to the limited functionality. The advantages of the simulation of nanoscale devices are the fast investigation of different structure variation opposite to a costly manufacturing of semiconductor devices and the better understanding of the inner electron behaviour in nanostructures as well as to find out scaling rules of modern devices with ultra short structure dimensions. For the simulation of complex nanoelectronic semiconductor devices it is necessary that in the physical model quantum mechanical transport phenomena, like tunneling processes of carriers through potential barriers or particle accumulation in quantum wells are included.