WCM'07

The 2007 Workshop on Compact Modeling (WCM) will take place in Santa Clara (Silicon Valley, California) from May 20 to 24 2007.

WCM'07 is part of the NSTI Nanotech 2007 Conference, and is held in association with the Tenth International Conference on Modeling and Simulation of Microsystems (MSM 2007).

WCM is the main symposium devoted to the field of compact modeling of semiconductor devices. The WCM Workshop was created in 2002, thanks, especially, to Professor Xing Zhou, from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), who has always been the WCM Chair.

The technical program of WCM is especially interesting this year. Some of the invited speakers are really big authorities in the field of semiconductor device modelling: Jerry Fossum, Chenming Hu, Narain Arora, Mark Lundstrom, Jamal Deen, Tor Fjeldly, Yuan Taur, Colin McAndrew, Mitiko Miura-Mattausch, Dirk Klaassen,...

There will be sessions devoted to different types of devices. Multiple Gate MOSFET modeling is certainly a very hot topic: there will be two sessions adressing these devices, and another session will also include papers on single and double gate SOI MOSFETs.

Among the papers to be presented regarding the modeling of Multiple Gate MOSFET modeling, we can highlight the presentation of a PSP-based scalable model for FinFETs, a work made by the PSP team.

On the other hand, WCM will include one interesting session focusing on statistical/process-based models.

I truly recommend all compact modeling developers to attend WCM'07. It is the workshop where the new ideas on compact modeling are first presented.

Spintronics

Have you ever wondered what is that thing people call 'spintronics'? If so, here you have the link to a very good review on that, beginning at the basis. It has been published at this month's issue of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (as an Invited Paper), an it has been written by Michael E. Flatté, from the University of Iowa. I strongly recommend having a look at it. This way, at least, you will be able to answer some more questions when playing trivial pursuit....

Another Blog

Here you have a list of other blogs. It is interesting to have a look at them, because there is interesting info there, though not all of them are updated often.

http://semiweb.blogspot.com/
http://semiconductorglossary.com/
http://ece-www.colorado.edu/~bart/book/book/contents.htm

International Microwave Symposium'07

The 2007 International Microwave Symposium is a little over a month away. It will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, between 3-8 June. And, as predicted, they are hosting some sessions on modeling. In fact, as reflected in the technical program, they will host two short courses on device modeling and characterization, plus another in noise. In addition, there will be four different sessions dedicated to models. A nice opportunity to visit Hawaii...

Biosensors and CNTs

A brief comment on a brief news appeared in the SPIE newsroom: Joe Shapter and Jamie Quinton, from the Finders University, Australia, explain how to ease the integration of biosensors into silicon, thanks to the use of carbon nanotubes. It's ok, but we still do not have any compact model for a carbon nanotube, so simulation of this kind of sensors is not feasible in a conventional simulator. It's a pity.

MOS-AK Meeting in Graz

The Spring MOS-AK meeting was held on April 30 in Premstraetten (very close to Graz), Austria

The scope of Spring Meeting was noise compact modeling, but also included contributions on noise measurement and characterization. Different devices were considered: conventional bulk MOSFETs, lateral MOSFETs, multiple-gate MOSFETs.

It was a very interesting meeting, with the participation of top researchers in the field of noise and compact modeling, such as Christoph Jungemann or Mitiko Miura-Mattausch (who explained the implementation of noise modelling in the HiSIM bulk MOSFET model).

Furthermore, it was a very nice oportunity to visit the beautiful city of Graz, and to taste the delicious pumkin-based Styrian specialties as well as the great local wines.

New issue of the IEEE Trans. on Electron Devices

Some new papers from quite important people in this month's issue of the IEEE Trans. on Electron Devices:
First, A Compact Model for Valence-Band Electron Tunneling Current in Partially Depleted SOI MOSFETs From Gildenblat, McAndrew,... etc...

Second, Depletion-All-Around Operation of the SOI Four-Gate Transistor from Cristoloveanu et alter.