Evolution systems in semiconductor device modeling: A cyclic uncoupled line analysis for the gummel map

The initial/boundary‐value problem for isothermal, lattice, semiconductor device modeling is described and analyzed. This nonlinear elliptic/parabolic system of reaction/diffusion/convection type is determined by a Maxwell equation, relating space/charge and the electric field, and by two continuity equations for the free electron and hole carrier concentrations. The Einstein relations for Brownian motion are not assumed in this analysis, so that the electrostatic potential, u, and the carrier concentrations, n and p, are the fundamental dependent variables of the system. The boundary conditions are Dirichlet conditions for dependent variable values on the contact portions of the device, and homogeneous Neumann conditions, expressing insulation, on the complement. Complicating the analysis are the transition singularity points between the mixed boundary conditions, and the field dependence of the mobility and diffusion coefficients. By means of a physically motivated analysis of the convective current component, we are able to uncouple the system by a cyclic horizontal line analysis, without an unreasonable time step restriction. The corresponding linear equations are solved by a contractive inner iteration. The outer iteration is shown to converge to a unique solution of the system, under singularity classification at the transition points. The definition of this outer iteration follows the steady‐state Gummel iteration at discrete time steps. An existence theory is a by‐product of the analysis, and is separated from uniqueness theory.