I WOULD like to express my deep gratitude to a number of people who supported me during my work in technical, financial, and personal form.
First of all I want to thank Prof. Tibor Grasser for giving me the opportunity to work in the Christian Doppler Laboratory for TCAD in Microelectronics at the Institute for Microelectronics. He was the supervisor of this thesis and without his scientific support the high quality of this work would not have been possible. The financial support by the Christian Doppler Gesellschaft allowed me to fully concentrate on the scientific work in combination with an industrial background, thanks to our industry partners Austriamicrosystems and Infineon. A big thank you goes to Prof. Magerl who agreed to take part in the examination committee. I would like to thank Gilbert Declerck, Guido Groeseneken, Robin Degraeve, and Ben Kaczer who gave me the opportunity to work at IMEC research center in Leuven, Belgium, during a two month internship.
I want to thank Prof. Siegfried Selberherr and Prof. Erasmus Langer who are responsible for the excellent working conditions at the Institute for Microelectronics. Both, the technical infrastructure and the amicable climate at the institute assisted me with my task. Also the support of Manfred Katterbauer and Ewald Haslinger in administrative and technical aspects is highly appreciated.
Of highest importance during my time at the Institute for Microelectronics was the endless support of my colleagues and friends. First and foremost I want to name Enzo Ungersböck. We shared our office and had literally uncountable discussions about computer problems, our fatherhood, where to go for lunch, or just daily business. In him I have found a very good friend. The proof-readers of my thesis, Oliver Triebl, Wolfgang Gös, and Philipp Hehenberger with their numerous suggestions greatly improved this work. Furthermore I want to thank Alireza Sheikholeslami, Andreas Gehring, Andreas Hössinger, Christian Hollauer, Gerhard Karlowatz, Gregor Meller, Johann Cervenka, Markus Karner, Martin Vasicek, Martin Wagner, Paul Wagner, Philipp Schwaha, Robert Wittmann, Siddhartha Dhar, Stefan Holzer, Stephan Wagner, Viktor Sverdlov, and Wilfried Wessner, who let me share their knowledge on semiconductors, programming, or operating system related topics.
Above all I want to thank my family. My loving wife Anna supported and encouraged me whenever possible. She brought me through the hard times when work seemed to find no end. My parents, who gave me the opportunity to attend university and who took the financial burden, especially my mother, who raised and guided me. My mother-in-law was supporting my wife and me with our children whenever possible.
And, of course, there are Sarah and Johanna. My daughters are most certainly
the best achievement of my life 