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This chapter presents the motivation of this thesis and points out the resulting benefits for semiconductor devices, their enhancements, and their applications.
In Chapter 2, the impact of thermal effects on important parameters of fabrication processes and operation conditions of microelectronic devices is discussed. Moreover, this chapter shows how coupling of different simulation regimes is possible and consequently provides a better insight into today's critical thermal issues for semiconductor devices.
Chapter 4 gives an introduction to available optimization techniques that can be used within a certain range of applications for industrial requirements. Furthermore, important industrial requirements for optimization in general are presented as well as an approach which allows to apply an inverse modeling technique for parameter extraction and identification purposes in an efficient way.
Examples are presented in Chapter 5 which show the wide range of applications for optimizations and for the optimization environment SIESTA (Simulation Environment for Semiconductor Technology Analysis). In order to improve device characteristics as well as to reduce thermally induced parasitic phenomena, some special sub-problems are discussed that are crucial for certain device fabrication processes.
To conclude this thesis, Chapter 6 discusses future trends in microelectronics with a focus on exploiting thermally induced phenomena and presents alternatives for the semiconductor devices and materials in the micro and nano regime.