Jun 2, 2016

A new constituent of electrostatic energy in semiconductors

 A new constituent of electrostatic energy in semiconductors
 An attempt to reformulate electrostatic energy in matter
 
 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne Switzerland 

Received: 30 October 2015
Received in final form: 29 January 2016
Published online: 1 June 2016

Eur. Phys. J. B, 89 6 () 136
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2016-60865-4

Abstract: The concept of electric energy is revisited in detail for semiconductors. We come to the conclusion that the main relationship used to calculate the energy related to the penetration of the electric field in semiconductors is missing a fundamental term. For instance, spatial derivate of the electrostatic energy using the traditional formula fails at giving the correct electrostatic force between semiconductor based capacitor plates, and reveals unambiguously the existence of an extra contribution to the standard electrostatic free energy. The additional term is found to be related to the generation of space charge regions which are predicted when combining electrostatics with semiconductor physics laws, such as for accumulation and inversion layers. On the contrary, no such energy is needed when relying on electrostatics only, as for instance when adopting the so-called full depletion approximation. The same holds for neutral and charged insulators that are still consistent with the customary definition, but these two examples are in fact singular cases. In semiconductors for instance, this additional energy can largely exceed the energy gained by the dipoles, thus becoming the dominant term. This unexpected result clearly asks for a generalization of electrostatic energy in matter in order to reconcile basic concepts of electrostatic energy in the framework of classical physics.

Keywords: Solid State and Materials

© The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

May 27, 2016

Workshop on Flexible Electronics

The Workshop on Flexible Electronics (WFE) will be held on June 29 2016 in Tarragona (Catalonia, Spain) in combination with the 4th Training Course on Compact Modeling (TCCM, June 27-28).

The Workshop on Flexible Electronics (WFE) will provide a forum for discussions and current trends and practices on Flexible Electronics, including materials, technology, device characterization, device modeling and circuit design.  The WFE workshop is organized by the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Automatic Control Engineering (DEEEiA) of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), in Tarragona and the Fundació Universitat Rovira i Virgili (FURV), and is co-sponsored by the EU-funded DOMINO projecct and the Spanish Thematic Network REFLEXIO.  

The General Chair of WFE is Prof. Benjamin Iñiguez, who is also the Coordinator of the DOMINO project.

 A partial list of the areas of interest includes:
  • Organic and Flexible Photovoltaic device technologies
  • Organic and Flexible LED technologies
  • TFT technologies for Flexible and Printed Electronics
  • Interconnects in Flexible Electronics
  • Physics, characterization and modeling of devices for Flexible Electronics
  • Circuit design for Flexible and Printed Electronics
The deadline for a 500 word abstract submission is May 29 2016.

Attendees to TCCM who work on Flexible Electronics (not necessarily modeling) will have a chance to present recent results on their own. But WFE is open to all researchers.

Besides, attending TCCM can be of interest to potential WFE participants, since several TCCM lectures target modeling issues of devices for Flexible Electronics (in particular, Thin-Film Transistors), or modeling aspects that can be applied to many semiconductor devices.

Registration to both events is open. It is possible to register only to WFE, or only to TCCM or to both. It is quite cheap, in partular for students, and includes lunches, coffee breaks, and in the case of TCCM, a gala dinner.

Finally, on June 30-July 1 the Annual Graduate Student Meeting on Electronic Engineering will be held, consisting of plenary talks by prestigious researchers and student presentations. Registration is free.

Tarragona is about 100 Km south from Barcelona, on the coast (the so-called "Costa Daurada", Golden Coast). Traveling to Tarragona from Barcelona is easier. There are frequent direct buses between Tarragona and Barcelona Airport, and also frequent trains between Tarragona and Barcelona. Besides, from some European cities it is possible to fly to Reus Airport, which is about 10 Km from Tarragona.

Tarragona is one of the most  important hubs of tourism in Europe, not only because of the nice beaches around the city, but also because of its historical landmarks.. Tarragona was a very important city of the Roman Empire. In 2000 UNESCO committee officially declared the Roman archaeological complex of Tarraco (name of Tarragona during the Roman Empire) a World Heritage Site. This recognition is intended to help ensure the conservation of the monuments, as well as to introduce them to the broader international public.

I encourage researchers on  Flexible Electronics to send abstracts to  WFE!

4th Training Course on Compact Modeling

The 4th Training Course on Compact Modeling (TCCM) will take place in Tarragona (Catalonia, Spain) from June 27 to 28 2016.

The 4th TCCM is partially sponsored by the DOMINO EU H2020 project. It will consist a series of lectures conducted by prestigious researchers in the field of modeling of semiconductor devices, dealing with several issues related to the semiconductor device modeling, mostly compact/SPICE modeling. It is a very interesting event to PhD students and young researchers, but can interest senior researchers too. These lectures will be conducted by top experts in the field. 

No doubt the 4th TCCM will be useful to researchers working on compact modeling, but also to researchers working on circuit design, numerical modeling, device characterization and semiconductor device technology.

TCCM is organized by the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Automatic Control Engineering (DEEEiA) of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), in Tarragona. The General Chair of TCCM is Prof. Benjamin Iñiguez, who is also the Coordinator of the DOMINO project.

Invited TCCM Lecturers:

  • Morgan Madec (Univ of Strasbourg, France): Compact modeling for biological applications
  • Mansun Chan (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology): An Integrated Approach for Circuit Performance and Reliability Simulation
  • Mohammed Nawaz (ABB Sweden): Static and dynamic characterization of SiC based MOSFETs/IGBTs
  • Christoph Jungemann (RWTH-Aachen): TCAD and semiclassical device modeling
  • Antonio Cerdeira (CINVESTAV, Mexico): Model parameter extraction techniques
  • Fabrizio Torricelli (Univ. of Brescia, Italy): Modelling of Amorphous-Oxide-Semiconductors TFTs for large-area flexible electronics
  • Eugenio Cantatore (TU-Eindhoven): Application of compact models for organic circuit design
  • Ahmed Nejim (Silvaco): TCAD for compact model development
  • Firas Mohammed (Infiniscale): Mathematical and Semi-physical compact modeling for emerging technologies
  • Heinz Olaf Müller (Plastic Logic): Device simulation for Organic Electronics using Genius
  • Heidrun Alus (AdMOS GmbH, Germany): Modeling and experimental verification of mechanical stress effects in  ultra-thin Si MOSFET devices integrated into flexible packages
  • Benjamin Iñiguez: Compact modeling of AlGaN/gaN HEMT devices 

Besides, on June 29 1016, the  Workshop on Flexible Electronics (WFE) will take place in Tarragona, too. Attendees to TCCM who work on Flexible Electronics (not necessarily modeling) will have a chance to present recent results on their own. But WFE is open to all researchers.


Registration to both events is open. It is possible to register only to TCCM, or only to WFE or to both. It is quite cheap, in partular for students, and includes lunches, coffee breaks, and in the case of TCCM, a gala dinner.


Finally, on June 30-July 1 the Annual Graduate Student Meeting on Electronic Engineering will be held, consisting of plenary talks by prestigious researchers and student presentations. Registration is free.

Tarragona is about 100 Km south from Barcelona, on the coast (the so-called "Costa Daurada", Golden Coast). Traveling to Tarragona from Barcelona is easier. There are frequent direct buses between Tarragona and Barcelona Airport, and also frequent trains between Tarragona and Barcelona. Besides, from some European cities it is possible to fly to Reus Airport, which is about 10 Km from Tarragona.

Tarragona is one of the most  important hubs of tourism in Europe, not only because of the nice beaches around the city, but also because of its historical landmarks.. Tarragona was a very important city of the Roman Empire. In 2000 UNESCO committee officially declared the Roman archaeological complex of Tarraco (name of Tarragona during the Roman Empire) a World Heritage Site. This recognition is intended to help ensure the conservation of the monuments, as well as to introduce them to the broader international public.

I encourage researchers on semiconductor devices and circuit design to attend TCCM!


May 25, 2016

[Summer Tutorial] Verified Measurements for Successful Device Models

 Verified Measurements for Successful Device Models 
 at IHP in Frankfurt (Oder), June 15-17, 2016 

Good electronic device modeling results depend directly on reliable, qualified and verified measurements. It is a known fact that problems with device models are – to a big part – rather due to measurement problems. Within the measurement chain of DC, Impedance (CV), S-Parameter, Nonlinear RF, and Noise, there are several challenges to overcome like device self-heating, contact resistance, max. applicable RF power, calibration, de-embedding etc.

IHP Summer Tutorial will take place at IHP in Frankfurt (Oder), June 15-17, 2016. It will cover in detail all these measurement domains, will explain the setups, the data verification methods, the traps to be avoided, and give best-practice recommendations and examples. It will be enhanced by live measurements in IHP’s measurement labs.

As a wrap-up, an introduction into device modeling, applying the qualified and verified measurements, will be given at the end.

Who should attend: Semiconductor manufacturing and measurement engineers, device modeling engineers, scientists and students working/interested in measurement techniques.


May 14, 2016

Charge-based compact analytical model for triple-gate junctionless nanowire transistors https://t.co/UW5FtHzp4G #papers #feedly


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May 14, 2016 at 10:05AM
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