Acknowledgment

Writing a thesis is hard, finishing it is even harder. Now is the time to say thank you to the people who have helped me to finish with it:

First I want to thank my advisor, Prof. Tibor Grasser. Working in the field of TCAD I learned that a large part of it is software-engineering. Invisible to the industrial end-user this is an iceberg-like characteristic of the field.

Though I do not share Tibor's love for software-engineering nor his skills, I very much appreciated his management skills for the development process, which were badly needed. I am proud to be a small part of the MINIMOS-NT development team and want to thank you, Tibor, for suggesting the ``six moments project'' to me. You were the most competent advisor one can hope for.

Second, I want to thank Prof. Mihail Nedjalkov for teaching me within the NANO-TCAD project. Mixi, to me you are by far the most-highly respected of all the researchers here at the Institute, the only ``real'' physicist. I am sorry, that you are no longer with us at the Institute, because I also lost a good friend, who more than once saved me from depression. I recently learned that it is only due to you that Tibor suggested the project to me. So it is really you whom I owe my PhD.

I also want to thank Prof. Siegfried Selberherr for his support, when I was with the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Integrated Devices. And last, but not least, I want to thank Prof. Hans Kosina for his support within the NANOTCAD project.

Then I want to say thanks to Prof. Christian Schmeiser, whom we consulted several times with topics from a never-ending list of numerical problems. Thank you for your support and also for participating on my examining committee. I also want to thank Prof. Christian Ringhofer and Prof. Paula Pietra for ``numerical'' support.

In six years of study one gets to know a lot of colleagues, most of them good guys. From my colleagues I first want to thank Klaus Dragosits, the most ``original'' researcher at the Institute. But what I liked most with you, Klaus, is that you are a very untypical ``techie''. Going out was always fun with you, you also have the most to say on ``outlook on life''-style, i.e., non-technical, issues.

Then I want to say especially thanks to Johann Cervenka, with whom I shared rooms for the longest time. From Cerv I learnt what it means to be an electrical engineer: high problem solving competence. I also relied for a very long time on your system administration skills - this was invaluable to me. And thank you once more, Captain Cerv, for the many beers and the sailing trips!

I want to thank my former room mates: Andreas Hössinger, Christian Harlander, Rainer Sabelka, Heinrich Kirchauer, Wolfgang Pyka, Rui Martins, Christian Troger, Thomas Binder, Vassil Palankovski, Rodrigo Rodriguez, and Bernhard Haindl.

Times have changed and a new generation of colleagues has taken over. Good luck with your thesis to Christian Hollauer, Ali Sheikholeslami, Robert Wittmann, Hajdin Ceric, Rene Heinzl, Robert Entner, Stephan Wagner, Stephan Holzer, Willi Wessner and Enzo Ungersböck. Have a better plan and finish faster than me!

Finally, I want to thank the Christian Doppler Society and our industrial partners from austriamicrosystems and Infineon Villach for the good cooperation within the Doppler Laboratory for TCAD in Microelectronics.

On a private side, let me thank my family, whose enduring support was of vital importance for my personal and academic advancement.

I also want to thank my friends Alexander Zwirchmayr, Herbert Langsteiner, Reinhard Hofstätter, and Thomas Lewis for their loving care and support.

Danke, Herr, dass du mir

die Kraft gegeben hast $\dots$