So long....

It has been a long time since the last entry in the blog... I regret (I mean: I'm happy...) that we've had too much work. Well, here you have a very interesting link. It is not very related to Compact Modelling, but it is VERY related to scientific communication. It is an article in the Sydney Herald Tribune reporting an study about powerpoint(tm) presentations... You should read it (it quite short)...

HiSIM model included in another simlator

Magma FineSim SPICE Supports STARC HiSIM Model with Proven 20x Faster Circuit Simulation and Nearly Exact Correlation to Silicon. Or so they say in their web. See the full press release for more details. However, I love one of the sentences: "STARC's mission is to contribute to the growth of the Japanese semiconductor industry by developing leading-edge system-on-a-chip (SoC) design technologies.". Well, I would think that their primary mission is creating value for they investors, but one never knows. Now seriously, it is good to see that people is beginning to provide support (or implementations) of HiSIM. I only hope that foundries will follow the path, instead of being stuck with good (well, perhaps not so much), old (yes it is) BSIM3.1. I know this is a version of many years ago, but I can promise you that I've been playing with a 120nm technology using it.

By the way, by the moment it seems that more people is implementing HiSIM than PSP... curious, isn't it?

Call for Grant applications at SRC

SRC-GRC is calling for grant applications in Cross-disciplinary Semiconductor Research. The role of this program is to stimulate non-traditional thinking about the issues facing the semiconductor industry. It is intended to seed new research and programs for the SRC-GRC and SRC-FCRP. Consistent with the incubator role of the initiative, these will be 1 year non-overhead bearing grants at a funding level of $40K.

The scope of this solicitation is Nanoscale CMOS-Based Architectures. The challenge: Sustaining CMOS value progression through functional scaling and system design. The deadline: may, 1st. In principle, this is not for compact models, but I think that a good proposal including compact modeling could be redacted. Why? Because new devices are required to address the challenges of the next years and there is no way to do it without good compact models. So, at least a part of a sensible proposal should include some compact modeling (if nothing more, some way to go from compact device models to compact functional models... otherwise no real achivements will be obtained but only some old techniques re-edited)

By the way, IBM India is looking for Compact Model Engineers. Have a look at their web.

Another blog

I've found another blog about semiconductors. It is basically about technology news, but it is quite interesting to look at. You can reach it here (by the way, the name is Semiconductor Highlights). It is not frequentely updated, but it has a long history. In any case, if any of you, dear hipothetical readers, feels like suggesting another blog, don't hesitate to post it here...

DCIS'07

The last call for papers has been issued for the DCIS'07. This conference has evolved from its origins, more than two decades ago, into an important international meeting for researches in the highly active fields of micro and nano electronics circuits and integrated systems. It provides an excellent forum to present and investigate the emerging challenges in modelling, design, implementation and test of circuits and systems. Experts from both industry and academia have the chance to discuss the demands and solutions for current applications. Strong scientific, technical and personal relationships have been developed in the frame of this event. Moreover, there will be at least one session dedicated to modelling. So, it is a very good opportunity to visit Sevilla!

DCIS 2007 will take place at Sevilla. Last editions were at Barcelona (2006), Lisboa (2005), Bordeaux (2004), Ciudad Real (2003), Santander (2002), Porto (2001), Montpellier (2000) and Palma de Mallorca (1999). DCIS 2007 will be organized by the Institute of Microelectronics of Sevilla, IMSE-CNM.