With the rise of sophisticated semiconductor models, optimization techniques for semiconductor devices have attracted strong and growing attention in the semiconductor industry. The accelerating miniaturization of devices in industry has shortened the design cycle of next-generation products, creating the need for new techniques that can keep up and evolve with the rapid growth in the field. The development of a new optimization platform for automated, computer-based design of semiconductor devices—the focus of this book—is examined through newly developed semiconductor models, reliable simulation tools, and appropriate optimization algorithms.

Starting with a survey of models and model hierarchies for semiconductor devices, the authors follow with the optimization models themselves, dividing the topic into three major categories: optimal design of devices, optimal control of devices, and identification problems. A particular emphasis is on optimization techniques and further numerical methods needed to solve these problems.

Key topics covered include:

* unified discussion of optimization tasks for semiconductor device models

* detailed analysis of optimization problems and the development of sophisticated optimization methods for the drift-diffusion model

* presentation of techniques that allow coupling of the newly developed sophisticated optimization strategies with existing commercial device simulators based on more complex models

* presentation of various case studies—including some important semiconductor applications, such as on-off state design of diodes, fast design of MOSFET devices—from modeling to simulation to optimization

* discussion of extensions to multiphysics problems, such as the optimization of coupled fluid dynamics and electrodiffusion models

* inclusion of optimization problems arising in applications that can be modeled by mathematical models, in particular, those from bioscience and the life sciences

Optimization Models for Semiconductor Devices is an excellent resource for researchers and practitioners in applied mathematics, physics, and electrical and computer engineering. Practitioners in the semiconductor industry will also find the advanced mathematical and computational techniques presented, as well as the unified overview of different techniques, useful for their work.