Nano antenna concentrates light

Condensed matter physicist Doug Natelson and graduate student Dan Ward have found a way to make an optical antenna from two gold tips separated by a nanoscale gap that gathers light from a laser. The tips "grab the light and concentrate it down into a tiny space," Natelson said, leading to a thousand-fold increase in light intensity in the gap. [more]

What's the "AMS" in VHDL-AMS?

from Mentor.com :: Blog Posts by Mike Jensen

read also related post "What's in a SPICE Model?"

The pocket beamer is a reality!

Maher Kayal, professor at EPFL's Institute of Electrical Engineering presents the beamer of the future: 1 cm3 of technology that can be integrated into a portable computer or mobile telephone. Nicolas Abélé, technical director of Lemoptix, explains the future developments of this new device.

TSMC, Taiwan universities partner to cultivate semiconductor talent

TSMC, Taiwan universities partner to cultivate semiconductor talent: "TaiwanSemiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), Taiwan's National Cheng ..."

Arana Behavioral Modeling Platform (as of Sept. 2010)

I copy part of the press release (by the way, the link in their home page doesn't work...):

Arana platform automates the process of behavioral model creation, generation, optimization, and validation for analog, custom digital, memory and mixed-signal integrated circuits. It features Arana Top-Down Designer, Arana Bottom-Up Designer, Arana Model Optimizer, and Arana Model Validator.

Arana Top-Down Designer supports behavioral model creation from specification or from templates, as well as automated calibration of model parameters against the transistor response and/or measurement data. Arana Bottom-Up Designer allows a circuit designer to automatically generate silicon-faithful parametric behavioral models—accounting for process, voltage, temperature, and loading variations—for functional verification.

Both Arana Bottom-Up Designer and Top-Down Designer support hierarchical modeling and automated generation of formal analog assertions and model test benches. Arana Model Optimizer and Model Validator optimize and validate behavioral models against transistor level responses and characterization and/or measurement data.

 read more...

Paper in IEE Electronics Letters (September 2010)

Analytical modelling of gate tunnelling current of MOSFETs based on quantum tunnelling

5567057abstract

Kazerouni, I.A.;   Hosseini, S.E.;   Parashkoh, M.K.;  
Engineering Department, Tarbiat Moallem University of Sabzevar, Sabzevar, Iran 
This paper appears in: Electronics Letters
Issue Date: September 2010
Volume: 46 Issue:18
On page(s): 1277 - 1279
ISSN: 0013-5194
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1049/el.2010.1339 
Date of Current Version: 09 September 2010
Sponsored by: Institution of Engineering and Technology 

Abstract

The gate tunnelling current of MOSFETs is an important factor in modelling ultra-small devices. In this reported work, the gate tunnelling current in present-generation MOSFETs is studied. Presented is a model for the gate tunnelling current in MOSFETs having ultra-thin gate oxides. In the proposed model, the electron wavefunction at the semiconductor-oxide interface is calculated and inversion charge by assuming the inversion layer as a potential well, including some simplifying assumptions. Then the gate tunnelling current is calculated using the calculated wavefunction. The proposed model results have excellent agreement with experimental results in the literature.

IEEE SCV EDS: LDMOS reminder & upcoming

Sept. 14th
LDMOS - Technology and Applications
Shekar Mallikarjunaswamy, Alpha Omega Semiconductor

Sept. 28th
The Makers of the Microchip: Creating the Planar Integrated Circuit, Establishing Silicon Valley
David Brock, Cristophe Lecuyer

Oct. 12th
Is it the End of the Road for Silicon in Power Management?
Dr. Alex Lidow, CEO Efficient Power Conversion Corporation

Details on IEEE SCV EDS website: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/eds