From Microelectronics to Nanoelectronics: Introducing Nanotechnology to VLSI Curricula
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Authors
Xiong, Xingguo
Zhang, Linfeng
Hmurcik, Lawrence V.
Gupta, Navarun
Issue Date
2011
Type
Article
Language
en_US
Keywords
Engineering , Education , Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) , Nanotechnology
Alternative Title
Abstract
In the past decades, VLSI industries constantly shrank the size of transistors, so that
more and more transistors can be built into the same chip area to make VLSI more
and more powerful in its functions. As the typical feature size of CMOS VLSI is
shrunk into deep submicron domain, nanotechnology is the next step in order to
maintain Moore’s law for several more decades. Nanotechnology not only further
improves the resolution in traditional photolithography process, but also introduces
many brand-new fabrication strategies, such as bottom-up molecular self-assembly.
Nanotechnology is also enabling many novel devices and circuit architectures which
are totally different from current microelectronics circuits, such as quantum
computing, nanowire crossbar circuits, spin electronics, etc. Nanotechnology is
bringing another technology revolution to traditional CMOS VLSI technology. In
order to train students to meet the quickly-increasing industry demand for nextgeneration
nanoelectronics engineers, we are making efforts to introduce
nanotechnology into our VLSI curricula. We have developed a series of VLSI
curricula which include CPE/EE 448D - Introduction to VLSI, EE 548 - Low Power
VLSI Circuit Design, EE 458 - Analog VLSI Circuit Design, EE 549 - VLSI Testing,
etc. Furthermore, we developed a series of micro and nanotechnology related courses,
such as EE 451 - Nanotechnology, EE 448 - Microelectronic Fabrication, EE 446 –
MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems). We introduce nanotechnology into our
VLSI curricula, and teach the students about various devices, fabrication processes,
circuit architectures, design and simulation skills for future nanotechnology-based
nanoelectronic circuits. Some examples are nanowire crossbar circuit architecture,
carbon-nanotube based nanotransistor, single-electron transistor, spintronics, quantum
computing, bioelectronic circuits, etc. Students show intense interest in these exciting
topics. Some students also choose nanoelectronics as the topic for their master
project/thesis, and perform successful research in the field. The program has attracted
many graduate students into the field of nanoelectronics.
Description
© 2011 by ASEE
Citation
Publisher
ASEE