Even though the active components of semiconductor devices have been shrunk down radically over the past decade, to the point where certain feature sizes are in the range of 30–40 nm, the motion and behavior of electrons are still reasonably well described by semiclassical models--Ohm's law coupled with macroscopic electrostatic models, drift–diffusion equations, and so on. The number of carriers is still large enough that quantum fluctuations are averaged out statistically, and the materials involved can, for the most part, be characterized by bulk material parameters. In this domain, technology computer aided design (TCAD) models are an essential tool to model and predict the physical properties of device components.
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