Effect of Electron-Electron Scattering on the Carrier Distribution in Semiconductor Devices

Abstract

It is commonly accepted that electron-electron scattering (EES) alters the high-energy tail of the energy distribution function [1] [2], and thus plays an important role in the physically-based modeling of hot carrier degradation [3]. One can distinguish between selfconsistent models which assume the actual or an approximate non-equilibrium distribution for the partner electrons, and non-selfconsistent models which assume an equilibrium distribution for the partner electrons. The latter approach is suitable to describe the interaction of channel hot electrons with a reservoir of cold electrons in the drain region. This case is studied in the present work. We briefly discuss the details about the derivation of the single-particle scattering rate and the implementation in a Monte Carlo simulator for both parabolic bands and full-band structures.