Within the next decade or so, integrated circuits are likely to reach their long forecasted scaling limits, with billions of transistors on a chip available at commodity prices. At the same time, nanotechnology is creating new materials, devices and computing paradigms, some of which address the challenges of billion transistor chips (e.g. photonic/electronic systems), while others address exciting new opportunities (e.g. conformal electronics, and self powered, biomimetic, sensor/electronic systems). These developments promise a new era of electronics one that harnesses the capabilities of novel nanoengineered materials and devices either alone or in conjunction with powerful silicon platforms to address society's challenges in energy, the environment, security, and health. This vision can only be achieved if new standardized models of nanodevices and tools to integrate them are first created and then embedded in a versatile design framework that gives designers the ability to explore and develop these innovative circuits and systems.

This proposed research will develop the critical missing link needed to transform nanoelectronic science into electronics for a new era accurate, robust, and fast compact models for nanodevices with diverse functionalities that are suitable for immediate use by designers in SPICE-based, design environment. The team will develop a suite of compact models, but, equally important, it will create a complete model development and simulation platform. This NEEDS-SPICE platform will allow experts in materials and devices to develop these new compact models on their own, and will enable designers to immediately use them in open/commercial SPICE-like simulators. The work will be motivated by innovative system designs that illustrate the potential of new-era electronics enabled by nanotechnology. The development of compact model will be firmly grounded in fundamental materials science and device physics, and will be experimentally validated. In the process of this research, the team will define a "language" and create a set of tools through which system designers and device and materials nanoscientists will work together as a community to realize the promise of nanotechnology.

Intellectual Merit: The development of compact models that accurately capture the essential physics of novel nanodevices is the first intellectual challenge. The requirements for a compact model to simulate accurately, robustly, and efficiently make such model development challenging and intellectually compelling, but also profoundly useful. Developing a compact model is a process of discovering the essential physical principles of a device and distilling them into an analytically compact form that satisfies crucial requirements for robust and efficient simulation. The result is models suitable for use by designers, but beyond this, the models also define the way device physicists and technologists understand and think about devices. The second intellectual challenge is the creation of a modular, model development and simulation platform that engages a broad community - allowing model developers to focus on device physics, rather than on simulation algorithms and giving designers access to high-quality models for nanodevices that run robustly on open/commercial platforms. The proposed research will develop this NEEDS-SPICE platform based on a clear understanding of the physics of nanodevices and of the underlying mathematical requirements and software structure of SPICE-like simulators.

Broader Impacts: The development and dissemination of open content educational resources and opensource software will give this research significant impact. Unique educational resources will prepare a new generation of students, researchers, and engineers who will be inspired and trained to realize the promise of nanotechnology. Open-source software tools will enable compact model development by a broad community, and the NEEDS-SPICE platform operating inside nanoHUB.org will serve a broad community of model developers and nanosystem designers giving this project impact long-beyond its five-year duration. The models, software platform, and intellectual framework to be developed will lead to a new era of low-cost, distributed, variation-tolerant, manufacturable, integrated nanosystems that address society's challenges in energy, the environment, security, and health.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2012-09-01
Budget End
2018-08-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$5,000,000
Indirect Cost
Name
Purdue University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
West Lafayette
State
IN
Country
United States
Zip Code
47907