Self-consistent coupled carrier transport full-wave EM analysis of semiconductor traveling-wave devices

We propose a rigorous finite-element-method (FEM) model for traveling-wave structures on doped semiconductor substrates based on a full-wave electromagnetic model coupled to a drift-diffusion description of carrier transport. The coupled model allows to describe field-carrier interactions in distributed structures, where strong low-frequency dispersion due to metal and semiconductor losses and multimodal behavior are observed. Slow-wave propagation, which is significant for photonic devices wherein synchronous optical-RF coupling is required, is also self-consistently accounted for. Numerical examples for some practical microwave structures exploited in RF and optoelectronic applications are included to illustrate the capabilities and effectiveness of the proposed numerical technique.