EAGER: Software Development for Simulation and Optimization of Nanoscale Integrated Circuits

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

This EAGER project is focused on: - Multi-level simulation tools for circuits consisting of quantum tunneling devices such as resonant tunneling diode (RTDs) and quantum dots. - The design of new integrated circuits using these tools both at mesoscale (RTD-based design) and at nanoscale (0-dimensional RTD- or quantum dot, QD-based design). The overall research project will be divided into two different tasks: task-1: Reverse Synthesis of RTD structures in order to optimize the overall circuit performance; and, task-2: Design, Fabrication and Simulation of RTD and Quantum Dot based integrated circuits. The US National Nanotechnology Initiative has projected the nanotech market to grow to $1 Trillion by year 2015, and integrated nanoelectronics and nanosystems are expected to make heavy commercial inroad within a decade. However, one of the chief obstacles to their adoption at present is the lack of integrated, multi-level software for studying their properties, and aiding their design, simulation, optimization and interaction with peripheral systems. Many of the desirable features and characteristics of such software, identified by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) in 2005, are integral to this project?s research work. This project develops the theory and prototype software that will aid in the multilevel design, simulation and optimization of circuits consisting of quantum tunneling devices as well as conventional devices. To insulate circuit designers from the quantum-physical transport details in device operation, this project develops a Q-Device Model module that operates in conjunction with QSPICE so that system-level optimization is possible in a reverse-synthesis approach. This project's research may have the following broader impacts: - new and efficient nanocircuits and nanoarchitectures to supplement and complement existing applications and products, - a new tool for design of such integrated nanoelectronics, - pedagogical methodology in inter-disciplinary training to the next generation of circuit engineers who will then be equipped to transfer principles and skills gained in this new paradigm to still further technologies like molecular electronics, - audio/visual material clips showing the growth of self-assembled nanowires and colorful images of strings of atoms viewed through Scanning Electron Microscopes to stimulate excitement in high-school and community-college students and in the community at large, - promotion of female and minority students in doctoral degree program in electrical and computer engineering, and - collaboration between theory, simulation and experiment, and between academia and US industry, and international institutes.