3.

2 The Boltzmann Transport Equation

Because of the nature of scattering as a random process it is impossible to
determine the path
of a carrier exactly. Instead a stochastic approach is used where the carrier gas is
described by
a distribution function . This distribution function is related to the total number of
particles in the system by
The integral in real space is hereby over the whole device domain whereas the
integral in
-space is over the first Brillouin zone (BZ), is the minimum phase-space volume of
a particle and the factor of two originates from the two possible spin states of the
carriers. The
semiclassical Boltzmann equation reads then