CAREER: Towards the Future of Reliable and Scalable Nanoelectronic Systems

基于纳米级晶体管的未来系统将大大提高信息收集和处理能力。 然而，可靠性和可扩展性的挑战，要求在系统级的方法进行改造。 一些基本假设将改变与纳米晶体管：制造过程将是高度缺陷，由于随机性质的纳米自组装;系统的可靠性不能保证在现场，因为纳米晶体管是非常容易间歇性故障;系统的可扩展性要求组件之间的互连严格本地化。这项研究旨在形成一种新的范式，以构建可靠的和可扩展的纳米系统，这将打开新的应用领域目前阻碍了规模和功率限制。 本研究的重点是未来纳米系统的三个生命周期阶段：（1）在制造过程中发现的缺陷，通过芯片重构处理;（2）在现场处理动态故障与内置冗余元件的严格约束下的局部互连。这两个阶段的方法和分析将为（3）系统设计阶段提供指导。这个职业生涯项目包括一个强大的教育组成部分，本科生参加一些竞争项目，以获得研究经验。这些项目也加入了研究生学习传达研究成果给广大观众。这样一个综合的研究和教育工作的目的是弥合国家的最先进的研究和工程方法的教学，EE，CE和CS的许多不同的知识机构之间的差距，并在学术界的系统研究和设备研究。

Future systems based on nanoscale transistors will offer significant boosts in information gathering and processing capabilities. However, the reliability and scalability challenges mandate a transformation in the system-level approaches. A number of fundamental assumptions will change with nanoscale transistors: the fabrication processes will be highly defective due to the random nature of nanoscale self-assembly; system reliability cannot be guaranteed in the field because nanoscale transistors are extremely susceptible to intermittent faults; system scalability demands the interconnection between components to be strictly localized. This research aims at forming a new paradigm to construct reliable and scalable nanosystems, which will open up new application domains currently held back by the size and power limit. This research focuses on three life-span stages of future nanosystems: (1) defects discovered during manufacturing are treated through chip reconfiguration; (2) dynamic faults are treated in the field with built-in redundant elements under the strict constraint of local interconnections. The approaches and analysis for these two stages will provide guidance for the (3) system design stage. This CAREER project includes a strong educational component for undergraduate students to participate in a number of competition projects to gain research experiences. These projects are also joined by graduate students to learn to convey research outcome to a general audience. Such an integrated research and educational effort aims at bridging the gaps between state-of-the-art research and the teaching of engineering approaches, many distinct knowledge bodies of EE, CE, and CS, and between systems research and device research in the academic community.