FLEXIBLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE MODELLING

在材料科学家的推动下，柔性电子的研究迄今为止主要集中在材料和制造技术上。虽然这些都是重要的领域，但设备建模和电路设计对于使研究更接近制造至关重要。器件和电路可靠运行的可弯曲度是一个迄今尚未解决的问题。这是一个挑战，因为电路仿真程序（如SPICE）的标准晶体管模型没有考虑到动态可弯曲性引起的影响。FLEXELDEMO将通过系统地表征超薄芯片，识别随着弯曲而变化的各种参数，并为可弯曲基板上的设备提出改进的BSIM模型，来解决这些挑战。这个项目在一定的时间尺度上有几个预期的好处。在短期内，这个项目将大大提高我们对由于弯曲（单轴，双轴或扭曲等）而导致的各种设备参数变化的理解，这是传统上研究不足的。在中期，它将使可弯曲基板上的电子设计成为可能，并预测可弯曲电子的行为，就像我们目前对平面电子所做的那样。从长远来看，该项目将导致智能地利用可弯曲性来改进电路设计。例如，位置或形状相关的应变场变化将用于设计位置/形状感知电路或补偿电子工件（例如自校准）。该方法还可以设计基于纳米线集成的可弯曲电子产品。通过建模来制定设计规则和集成策略将有助于稳定新兴的柔性电子技术。通过建模和仿真充分支持制造活动，该项目将为柔性电子和电子设计领域增加重要的新视角。

Largely driven by material scientists, the flexible electronic research thus far has focussed on the materials and fabrication techniques. Whilst these are important areas, device modelling and circuit design is critical for taking the research closer to manufacturing. The acceptable degree of bendability for reliable operation of devices and circuits is a question that has not been addressed so far. This is a challenging because the standard transistor models for circuit simulation programs such as SPICE do not take into account the dynamic bendability induced effects. FLEXELDEMO will address these challenges by systematically characterizing the ultra-thin chips, identifying various parameters that change with bending, and suggesting improved BSIM models for devices over bendable substrates. This project has several anticipated benefits over a range of time-scales. In the short-term, this project will substantially improve our understanding of changes in various device parameters as a result of bending (uni-axial, bi-axial or twisting etc.), which has traditionally been under-studied. In the medium-term, it will enable designing of electronics on bendable substrate and predicting the behaviour of bendable electronics just like we do currently for planar electronics. In the long-term, the project will lead to intelligent use of bendability in improving circuit design. For example, location or shape dependent strain-field variations will be used to design location-/shape-aware circuits or to compensate electronic artefacts (e.g. self-calibration). The approach could also lead to design on bendable electronics based on ensemble of nanowires. Formulating the design rules and integration strategies through modelling will help in stabilizing the nascent flexible electronics technology. By adequately supporting the fabrication activities with modelling and simulation, this project will add significant new perspective to the fields of flexible electronics and electronics design.