Aging and Reliability Effects Modelling and Mitigation in Nanoelectronics and Sensors

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Micro- and nano-electronic devices (transistors h devices is their increased susceptibility to aging, namely to demonstrate a noticeable degradation in performance and/or functionality over time. One demonstration of transistor aging is the shifting of the voltage at which a transistor turns on or off. Over time this leads such transistors to become slower to the point of failing to function altogether and thereby leading to system failure. While possibly tolerable common consumer products, such degradation will not be tolerable in systems and applications with requirements set for high-performance and/or high safety-criticality for extensive periods of time, e.g., automotive sector.******My recent research has investigated some fundamental phenomena related to aging in semiconductor materials. The proposed work will extend this work by focusing on establishing fundamental knowledge and characterization of the mechanisms that cause transistor and sensor degradations over time. The focus will be on the most common technologies like Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) as well on other emerging technologies such as Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) used in novel radiation detectors with applications in medical imaging, security (bomb detection) and surveillance. The proposed research program will also aim at developing solutions that eliminate altogether or mitigate the causes for degradation over time.***This work will therefore aim at developing solutions that will allow the deployment of future high performance and/or highly reliable compute, communication and sensor systems and networks.******The work will involve the development of sophisticated numerical modelling techniques and will lead to novel device fabrication, circuit, and system design methodologies that take into account or circumvent aging mechanisms, and involve graduates (6) and undergraduates (3) who will become highly qualified and employable by Canadian industry and able to contribute to future R&D in industrial or academic environments. ******The work will contribute to the worldwide semiconductor R&D community focused on electronic device reliability challenges. The work will be of direct and indirect importance and interest to a myriad of organizations established in Canada and focused on current or emerging computing, communications and sensing technologies. These include MDA, Huawei, IBM, Amazon, Google, Microsemi, D-Wave, Canadian Space Agency, Redlen Technologies, and others. **