The advective upstream splitting method (AUSM) developed for fluid dynamics
problems has been applied to solving hydrodynamic semiconductor equations coupled
with the Poisson’s equation. In the AUSM, the flux vectors of a fluid system are split
into a convective component and a diffusive pressure component. Discretization of these
two physically distinct fluxes is thus performed separately in AUSM. Application of the
developed hydrodynamic AUSM to a GaAs MESFET with a gate length of 0.1 μm has
demonstrated its simplicity, efficiency and effectiveness in dealing with the highly
nonlinear hydrodynamic device system.