Transistor models

Transistors are simple devices with complicated behavior. In order to ensure the reliable operation of circuits employing transistors, it is necessary to scientifically model the physical phenomena observed in their operation using transistor models. There exists a variety of different models that range in complexity and in purpose. Transistor models divide into two major groups: models for device design and models for circuit design.

The modern transistor has an internal structure that exploits complex physical mechanisms. Device design requires a detailed understanding of how device manufacturing processes such as ion implantation, impurity diffusion, oxide growth, annealing, and etching affect device behavior. Process models simulate the manufacturing steps and provide a microscopic description of device "geometry" to the device simulator. "Geometry" does not mean readily identified geometrical features such as a planar or wrap-around gate structure, or raised or recessed forms of source and drain(see Figure 1 for a memory device with some unusual modeling challenges related to charging the floating gate by an avalanche process). It also refers to details inside the structure, such as the doping profiles after completion of device processing.

With this information about what the device looks like, the device simulator models the physical processes taking place in the device to determine its electrical behavior in a variety of circumstances: DC current-voltage behavior, transient behavior (both large-signal and small-signal), dependence on device layout (long and narrow versus short and wide, or interdigitated versus rectangular, or isolated versus proximate to other devices). These simulations tell the device designer whether the device process will produce devices with the electrical behavior needed by the circuit designer, and is used to inform the process designer about any necessary process improvements. Once the process gets close to manufacture, the predicted device characteristics are compared with measurement on test devices to check that the process and device models are working adequately.

...
Wikipedia