Microwave p-i-n diodes and switches based on 4H-SiC

The 4H-SiC p-i-n diodes were designed, fabricated, and characterized for use in microwave applications. The diodes with mesa structure diameters between 80 and 150 /spl mu/m, exhibited a blocking voltage of 1100 V, a 100-mA differential resistance of 1-2 /spl Omega/, a capacitance below 0.5 pF at a punchthrough voltage of 100 V and a carrier effective lifetime between 15-27 ns. X-band microwave switches based on 4H-SiC p-i-n diodes are demonstrated for the first time. The switches exhibited insertion loss as low as 0.7 dB, isolation up to 25 dB and were able to handle microwave power up to 2.2 kW in isolation mode and up to 0.4 kW in insertion mode.     

Computational issues related to iterative coupling of subsurface and channel flows

Abstract We consider solution techniques for the coupling of Darcy and Stokes flow problems. The study was motivated by the simulation of the interaction between channel flow and subsurface water flow for realistic data and arbitrary interfaces between the two different flow regimes. Here, the emphasis is on the efficient iterative solution of the coupled problem based on efficient solvers for the discrete Stokes and Darcy problems.     

Phase formation at rapid thermal annealing of Al/Ti/Ni ohmic contacts on 4H-SiC

Ohmic contacts to the top p-type layers of 4H-SiC p⁺–n–n⁺ epitaxial structures having an acceptor concentration lower than 1×10¹⁹ cm⁻³ were fabricated by the rapid thermal anneal of multilayer Al/Ti/Pt/Ni metal composition. The rapid thermal anneal of multilayer A1/Ti/Pt/Ni metal composition led to the formation of duplex cermet composition containing Ni₂Si and TiC phases. The decomposition of the SiC under the contact was found to be down to a depth of about 100 nm. The contacts exhibited a contact resistivity R_c of 9×10⁻⁵ Ω cm⁻² at 21°C, decreasing to 3.1×10⁻⁵ Ω cm⁻² at 186°C. It was found that thermionic emission through the barrier having a height of 0.097 eV is the predominant current transport mechanism in the fabricated contacts.     

Algorithms for construction of preconditioners based on incomplete block-factorizations of the matrix

When applying an incomplete block-factorization technique one needs sparse approximate inverses of the successive Schur complements computed throughout the factorization. Here we propose a method for the construction of such sparse approximate inverses. The method has an advantage over earlier versions, in that such approximate inverses of block-tridiagonal matrices can be computed in parallel. Comparative numerical experiments for solving a number of discretized diffusion equations by this preconditioning matrix in a preconditioned conjugate gradient method and earlier versions of incomplete block-factorization preconditioners are presented.     

On discrete boundaries and solution accuracy in anisotropic adaptive meshing

In the adaptive mesh generation, the space mesh should be adequate to the surface mesh. When the analytical surface representation is not known, additional surface information may be extracted from triangular surface meshes. We describe a new surface reconstruction method which uses approximate Hessian of a piecewise linear function representing the discrete surface. Efficiency of the proposed method is illustrated with two CFD applications.     

Convergence analysis of a domain decomposition paradigm

We describe a domain decomposition algorithm for use in several variants of the parallel adaptive meshing paradigm of Bank and Holst. This algorithm has low communication, makes extensive use of existing sequential solvers, and exploits in several important ways data generated as part of the adaptive meshing paradigm. We show that for an idealized version of the algorithm, the rate of convergence is independent of both the global problem size N and the number of subdomains p used in the domain decomposition partition. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the procedure.     

On some ways of approximating inverses of banded matrices in connection with deriving preconditioners based on incomplete block factorizations

A unified approach of deriving band approximate inverses of band symmetric positive definite matrices is considered. Such band approximations to the inverses of successive Schur complements are required throughout incomplete block factorizations of block-tridiagonal matrices. Such block-tridiagonal matrices arise, for example, in finite element solution of second order elliptic differential equations. A sharp decay rate estimate for inverses of blocktridiagonal symmetric positive definite matrices is given in addition. Numerical tests on a number of model elliptic boundary value problems are presented comparing thus derived preconditioning matrices.     

Finite difference schemes on grids with local refinement in time and space for parabolic problems I. Derivation,stability, and error analysis

Finite difference schemes for parabolic initial value problems on cell-centered grids in space (rectangular for two space dimensions) with regular local refinement in space as in time are derived and their stability and convergence properties are studied. The construction of the finite difference schemes is based on the finite volume approach by approximation of the balance equation. Thus the derived schemes preserve the mass (or the heat). The approximation at the grid points near the fine and coarse grid interface is based on the approach proposed by the authors in a previous paper for selfadjoint elliptic equations. The proposed schemes are implicit of backward Euler type and are shown to be unconditionally stable. Error analysis is also presented.