EDS Compact Modeling Technical Committee Report

 

Narain Arora
The IEEE Compact Modeling Technical Committee, as a part of the Electron Device Society (EDS), was first set up in February 2001, with the aim to objectively identify, examine, and evaluate current models for active and passive components used for circuit simulation. The emphasis is on models for the components/interconnects required for chip design, and therefore this committee will attempt to work closely with the Solid-State Circuits Society.

Dr. Narain Arora chairs the committee. It is a non-voting Ex-Officio AdCom member position with a two-year renewable term. The committee, with diversified membership representing a variety of views, has 22 members from Europe, Japan, and North America. There are two EDS AdCom meetings a year, with one meeting always being held in conjunction with IEDM. The other AdCom meeting is normally held sometime in the April-June time period in conjunction with another EDS sponsored conference.

The first meeting of the committee was held in June 2001 in Singapore and was attended by five committee members. The main topic of the discussion was how to promote interaction among compact model (CM) developers, technology developers, and circuit designers. For developing best compact models for chip design, researchers in all the three areas are required to interact. It was decided that this committee needs to reach out to industry and the chip design community, so that model development is not done in isolation. Dr. Xing Zhou, one of the committee members, graciously agreed to establish a web site for the committee. The web site established in July 2001, is located at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/exzhou/CM and included the names of all committee members. In addition, it has links to many important societies of interest to model developers and users. Any comments/ideas/suggestions related to the field of VLSI device/circuit/interconnect compact modeling are welcome!

The second meeting was held last December (2001) during IEDM at Washington DC. Though only nine committee members attended the meeting, it was fairly good attendance judging from the overall attendance of the IEDM. There was lengthy discussion on standardization of the model versus how new model developments should be encouraged. To achieve the goals, the following points were discussed:

Arranging a workshop on compact models. In fact this year (2002) two workshops are being held on MOSFET compact models: the first one is being held, as a part of 5th International Conference on Modeling and Simulation of Microsystems (MSM), in Pureto-rico, April 22-25, 2002. At this workshop, there are nine invited speakers covering different MOS models such as BSIM4, HISiM, EKV, MOS11, SP2000, SOI and more. A panel session on compact models is also arranged. This workshop on MOS models will be the first of its kind and is largely the effort of MSM committee member Prof. Zhou, who is also a CM committee member. Another workshop on compact modeling of device and interconnect will be held September 9-10, as a part of Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) Modeling committee being chaired by Dr Dan Foty, who is also a CM committee member. This two-day workshop will cover both MOS and bipolar devices, in addition to interconnects.

Online Journal on Compact Modeling: It was felt that there is a need to start an online journal on compact modeling where compact modelers could share their views and experience and write articles, which need not be original research work, but should be useful for practicing engineers. Examples are methodologies for parameter extraction, technology impact on modeling, etc.

Special issue on compact modeling. It should cover topics such as Comparison of MOS vs. bipolar, flash memory, RF, nano devices, etc.

The locations and dates for the next two committee meetings for the year 2002 will be held at the following places.

Date: 9 June 2002
Meeting: VLSI Symposia
Location: Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, HI, USA

Date: 8 Dec 2002
Meeting: IEDM
Location: San Francisco Hilton & Towers Hotel, San Francisco, CA

In the first year of existence, the modeling committee has defined its goal and set up the necessary infrastructure to achieve this goal. However, more strategic discussion will follow in the coming year regarding collaboration with designers, and foundries. We all are aware of the fact that an important aspect of modeling is data, so how to get this data is an issue. An effort should be made to contact foundries and IDMs to get data for research work. The committee will explore on this issue towards achieving its goal.

Narian Arora
Simplex Solutions, Inc.
Sunnyvale, CA, USA