Computational Nanoelectronics:
Towards Design, Analysis, Synthesis, and Fundamental Limits

Nanotechnology has received a lot of public attention since President Clinton announced the National Nanotechnology Initiative. New approaches to applications in electronics, materials, medicine, biology and a variety of other areas will be developed in this new multi-disciplinary field. Notably, nanotechnology has already arrived in practical devices in the world of semiconductor electronics. Wave-like properties of electrons modify the functional device behavior once spatial variations in structures reach length scales of a few tens of nanometers. The modeling and simulation of such devices now deviates strongly from classical approaches: it must be fundamentally quantum mechanical. While standard technologies require extensive simulation tools for design, analysis and characterization, few such tools exist for nanoelectronic devices. This seminar will review the development of a comprehensive nanoelectronic modeling tool (NEMO), its algorithm and theory development, its utilization of low cost clusters for high performance computing, and its application to high-speed electronics, IR detectors and lasers. Device synthesis from performance specifications and device characterization via device simulation will be demonstrated.