Derivation of a hydrodynamic system hierarchy for semiconductors from the Boltzmann equation (Q810312)

Transport properties of hot carriers in submicroscopic semiconductor devices are not taken into account by the standard drift-diffusion model. On the other hand the Boltzmann equation provides one of the most sophisticated description of transport phenomena, but it is far more costly to compute numerically. Therefore in the recent years, a great effort has been produced to derive hydrodynamic models for semiconductors. In this paper a formal mathematical justification of these models is performed. Starting from the Boltzmann equation the classical moment method leads to an infinite system of fluid equations. A convenient scaling and a perturbation analysis allow to close this system. A hierarchy of hyperbolic systems which approximate the Boltzmann equation with an arbitrary high accuracy is obtained.