Microelectronics

Microelectronics research is rapidly gaining prominence as a strategically important direction in the Department of Energy (DOE) and at Berkeley Lab. There are a number of DOE initiatives targeting the development of next-generation microelectronic devices, particularly in the fields of new memory and data devices, interconnects, innovative materials, and 5G components.

However, currently available modeling capabilities cannot effectively capture the multiphysics aspect of emerging microelectronics. Furthermore, increased spatial resolution demands require a shift toward even larger-scale simulations. As a result, emerging post-CMOS technologies often rely on trial-and-error development strategies due to the lack of adequate simulation tools. There is an ever-increasing need for higher-fidelity simulations via higher spatiotemporal resolution and/or improved coupling that can seamlessly incorporate new physics into algorithms for widely-used, standard models.

As part of two DOE-funded Microelectronics-CoDesign programs at Berkeley Lab, we are addressing the need for enhanced modeling for more realistic devices by developing an algorithmically flexible capability that is performant on manycore/GPU-based supercomputers.

Projects

Exascale Microelectronics Device Modeling Software

We are developing scalable simulation tools to enable leadership computing systems to model the physics of emerging post-CMOS microelectronic devices (electronic, nanomagnetic, ferroelectric, nanomechanical, and multiferroic). ARTEMIS (Adaptive mesh Refinement Time-domain ElectrodynaMics Solver) is a time-domain electrodynamics solver that is fully open-source and portable from laptops to many-core/GPU exascale systems. Currently, there is a ferroelectric phase-field module, a micromagnetics module, and a dynamic EM module coupled with magnetic spin dynamics. We are working to connect the modules in a fully-coupled fashion. The massively parallel software developed under this project aims to incorporate complex physical coupling previously disregarded due to the difficulty in existing numerical solutions, enabling researchers to optimize the design of their devices. Contact: Zhi Jackie Yao

iARPA SuperTools

The SuperTools program is developing the first complete set of automated design tools to design and analyze complex superconducting electronic circuits. The toolchain will include standard cell libraries, process design kits, and physics-based technology computer-aided design tools that enable process and device simulations and device parameter extractions. These tools will allow the automated design of complex electronic circuits with millions of Josephson junctions (ultra-fast switches that exploit the unique physics of superconductors). Contact: John Shalf (Shalf on the Web)

PARADISE++ / PARADISE

PARADISE++ is building a post-Moore HPC (High-Performance Computing) system simulation framework to enable large-scale simulations of post-Moore architectures built using emerging devices and technologies. Contact: Dilip Vasudevan