Applied bias slewing in transient Wigner function simulation of resonant tunneling diodes

The Wigner function formulation of quantum mechanics has shown much promise as a basis for accurately modeling quantum electronic devices, especially under transient conditions. In this work, we demonstrate the importance of using a finite applied bias slew rate (as opposed to instantaneous switching) to better approximate experimental device conditions, and thus to produce more accurate transient Wigner function simulation results. We show that the use of instantaneous (and thus unphysical) switching can significantly impact simulation results and lead to incorrect conclusions about device operation. We also find that slewed switching can reduce the high computational demands of transient simulations. The resonant tunneling diode (RTD) is used as a test device, and simulation results are produced with SQUADS (Stanford QUAntum Device Simulator).