  Using the formal analysis made by Bohm in his book, {\em "Quantum theory"},
Dover Publications Inc. New York (1979), to calculate approximately the phase
time for a transmitted and the reflected wave packets through a potential
barrier, we calculate the phase time for a semiconductor system formed by
different mesoscopic layers. The transmitted and the reflected wave packets are
analyzed and the applicability of this procedure, based on the stationary phase
of a wave packet, is considered in different conditions. For the applicability
of the stationary phase method an expression is obtained in the case of the
transmitted wave depending only on the derivatives of the phase, up to third
order. This condition indicates whether the parameters of the system allow to
define the wave packet by its leading term. The case of a multiple barrier
systems is shown as an illustration of the results. This formalism includes the
use of the Transfer Matrix to describe the central stratum, whether it is
formed by one layer (the single barrier case), or two barriers and an inner
well (the DBRT system), but one can assume that this stratum can be comprise of
any number or any kind of semiconductor layers.
