Book excerpt: Most of the recent texts on compact modeling are limited to a particular class of semiconductor devices and do not provide comprehensive coverage of the field. Having a single comprehensive reference for the compact models of most commonly used semiconductor devices (both active and passive) represents a significant advantage for the reader. Indeed, several kinds of semiconductor devices are routinely encountered in a single IC design or in a single modeling support group. Compact Modeling includes mostly the material that after several years of IC design applications has been found both theoretically sound and practically significant. Assigning the individual chapters to the groups responsible for the definitive work on the subject assures the highest possible degree of expertise on each of the covered models.