The Chapman-Enskog Expansion and the Quantum Hydrodynamic Model for Semiconductor Devices

Abstract

A “smooth” quantum hydrodynamic (QHD) model for semiconductor devices is derived by a Chapman-Enskog expansion of the Wigner-Boltzmann equation which can handle in a mathematically rigorous way the discontinuities in the classical potential energy which occur at heterojunction barriers in quantum semiconductor devices. A dispersive quantum contribution to the heat flux term in the QHD model is introduced.