More DG

I've been looking at a not very known journal: the International Journal of Numerical Modelling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields, from Wiley. I've found an useful paper from the EKV people: "Explicit modelling of the double-gate MOSFET with VHDL-AMS". It is in the vol 19, issue 3 (may/june 2006). It seems that going VHDL is the future for all those implementing models, at least in the first stages. I agree with this trend, because it is much easier to use than trying to tie your C-code inside programs like HSPICE or Intusoft's simulator IsSpice. Moreover, it is also easier to depure and also it is easier to test the models. In some days, I should post something about model testing...

In the same issue, there is also another interesting paper about accurate substrate modelling for RF applications.

Undoped Double-Gate MOSFETs

It seems that this is the star subject in compact modelling in both Solid-State Electronics from Elsevier and the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. I have seen at least four different papers on the subject.

I think that the more interesting one among them is "A Review of Core Compact Models for Undoped Double-Gate SOI MOSFETs", from Adelmo Ortiz-Conde et al. I believe this for two reasons: the first one is that it is very convenient having a review of the state-of-the-art from time to time, and the second reason is that they are, probably, one of the best people to do this review, because they were one of the first research groups to work on this subject.

An interesting grant offer

The Microelectronics National Center (in Barcelona, dependent on the Spanish Research Council (CSIC)) opened a call for proposals to allow external researchers the use of their installations. The grant offer may also include allocation fees. Interesting to all those interested, mainly, in MEMs.

Tanner

Nearly a year after they released the 11.2 version of Tanner Tools, they are releasing a new version 12.2. Why am I posting this? Because they were one of the first to implement the PSP model (I remind you that PSP was elected on november 2005 by the CMC as the new standard). However, I'd like to point out that no effort has been put into implementing the other finalist (HiSim) or even the BSIM5. Life is hard for loser models...

Plastic electronics

I've got a mail from a friend (Jamal Deen) with some very important news to all those working on plastic electronics: it seems that Plastic Logic has got some small cash (around 100.000.000'00 USD) to start a production facility in Dresden, Germany. They are planning to build the first commercial production plant of plastic electronics, starting in 2008 (yes, that is next year!). Look at their press release here.

The other news is that Polymer Vision (Philips' spin-off) will be starting the production of rollable displays as soon as this same year. See the press release here.

Well, big news for everybody. It seems that we're about to enter a new age in consumer electronics, that of flexible electronics. Changes are very likely to be huge, but this is good, don't you agree?

Simulators

Today, I'll talk about ngSpice. The link is a page dedicated to this free-source simulator (in fact, it is its homepage). there you can find anything you need to download and compile one of the best simulators going around. However, the point is not only that it is a very good simulator, but that you can also implement your models there. And it's for free.... If you need more, you can also go to the gEDA project, that is a full design suite. It is more oriented to simulation of circuits than to simulation of devices, but it can be useful to device people to check the model in a full design flow.

Conferences

A friend of mine (Benjamin Iñiguez) has sent me links to some important conferences regarding compact modeling. The first one is to be held on Yokohama, Japan on January 23, and it is called the 4th International Workshop on Compact Modeling (IWCM). Lots of interesting talks and many good research being presented there.

The second link is for the 2007 Workshop on Compact Modeling, to be held in Santa Clara on May, 20-24. Also lots of important people (Jamal Deen, Chenming Hu, Matthias Bucher, Tor Fjieldy, Benjamin Iñiguez, Adelmo Ortiz-Conde, etc..), so it is very possible that you will find lots of important results there.

Another conference is the CDE, in Spain. It is a national one, but many good people is going there.