Performance Issues for Iterative Solvers in Device Simulation

Due to memory limitations, iterative methods have become the method of choice for large scale semiconductor device simulation. However, it is well known that these methods suffer from reliability problems. The linear systems that appear in numerical simulation of semiconductor devices are notoriously ill conditioned. In order to produce robust algorithms for practical problems, careful attention must be given to many implementation issues. This paper concentrates on strategies for developing robust preconditioners. In addition, effective data structures and convergence check issues are also discussed. These algorithms are compared with a standard direct sparse matrix solver on a variety of problems.

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