Quantum mechanical modeling of nano and bio-nano devices and sensors

电子工程的研究活动正经历着从亚微米到纳米电子学的范式转移。这有可能彻底改变电气工程，创造一个全新的设备类别，基于新材料和设备物理。量子力学定律将极大地影响这些纳米器件的行为，这将导致每个逻辑运算的更低功耗，以及单位体积和重量的更高功能。由于其大的表面体积比，纳米器件也为化学和生物传感开辟了新的固态技术，具有前所未有的单分子灵敏度。目前尚不清楚哪些新兴技术最终会留下来。为了实现快速进展，需要设计具有最佳性能的设备。这可以通过理论和现实建模来实现，这些建模说明了纳米材料的潜在设备物理和特性。由于纳米器件和纳米材料的制造是昂贵的，我们相信建模可以在以经济有效的方式分离成功的纳米技术和探索新的纳米器件概念方面发挥主导作用。拟议的研究活动的总体主旨是在滑铁卢大学建立一个强大的纳米器件计算研究和设计的重点。这将通过建立我们在基于量子物理方程和原子方法的纳米器件和纳米传感器建模方面的专业知识来实现。这项提议的工作将有助于在加拿大的计算纳米电子学领域建立HQP，并有助于在滑铁卢大学建立一个计算纳米技术卓越中心。

Research activity in Electrical Engineering is experiencing a paradigm shift in focus, from submicron to nano electronics. This has the potential to revolutionize Electrical Engineering, with the creation of an entirely new class of devices, based on novel materials and device physics. The laws of quantum mechanics will greatly influence the behavior of these nanodevices, which will lead to lower power dissipation per logic operation, and higher functionality per unit volume and weight. Owing to their large surface to volume ratios, nanodevices are also opening up new solid-state technologies for chemical and biological sensing, with unprecedented single molecule sensitivities. It is not clear as to which of the emerging technologies will eventually come to stay. To enable rapid progress, there is a need to design devices with optimal performance. This can be achieved through theory and realistic modeling that accounts for the underlying device physics and properties of nanomaterials. As fabrication of nanodevices and nanomaterials are expensive, we believe that modeling can play a leading role, in isolating the winning nanotechnologies in a cost-efficient manner, and exploring new nanodevice concepts. The overall thrust of the proposed research activities is to build a strong focus in the computational study and design of nanodevices, at the University of Waterloo. This will be materialized by building upon our expertise in modeling nanodevices and nanosensors, based on the equations of quantum physics and atomistic methods.  The proposed work will aid in the creation of HQP in the area of computational nanoelectronics in Canada, and help create a center of excellence in computational nanotechnology at the University of Waterloo.