High Speed Electronic Device Simulator

ABSTRACT: Wireless communications, radar, and biological detection require electronic components operating in the mm-wave and THz frequency ranges. GaAs metal semiconductor field effect transistor and nanoscale CMOS technologies have demonstrated high frequency capabilities and will likely benefit from future material systems and device architectures. The cost of exploring this wide design space can be reduced with predictive, physics-based simulation capabilities, which includes hot electron transport with electronic band structure and explicit electron scattering, and the ability to include fully electromagnetic wave fields, in addition to the more traditional electrostatic field model. This project will meet these requirements with a new semiconductor simulation tool using the Fermi Kinetics Transport (FKT) model for charge transport, and using the Dealuanay-Voronoi Surface Integration (DVSI) method for treatment of electromagnetics. The small business specializes in commercial scientific software, and will build the tool from the framework of a pre-existing application that treats charged fluids, in collaboration with the university partner who has already performed research in this area.; BENEFIT: The proposed extension of the USim software to include high speed electronic device modeling, based on fundamental physics, will provide fabricators with a unique opportunity to improve these new and emerging architectures. The semiconductor industry also continues its decades-long endeavor to continually shrink devices and get more transistors onto a chip. As the semiconductor devices get smaller, the chips can become less robust, or the individual devices begin to deviate from the expected behavior. This modeling tool can also be brought to bear on understanding these more traditional issues. Of particular interest is the effect of transient effects which give high frequency harmonics and transients, which have been known to cause device failure. Understanding how to avoid the dangerous effects of these transients is the focus of the engineers in Electrostatic Discharge Association. Although termed electrostatic discharge, these transients include EM effects that require the type of modeling which will be uniquely provided in this new tool, to fully understand the robustness of integrated circuits to withstand these transient effects. Our new capabilities will allow us to meet this market need with a unique software offering, that we would like to market as USimSD: USim for Semiconductor Devices. Like other software companies in the space, known as Electronic Design Automation (EDA) market, we will follow a propriety software business model. We are also a Cadence Connections partner to help fit into their workflow and allow us to reach their customers through this partnership. This provides a clear market entrance into an established market.