Computational Design of Next Generation Nanoelectronic Materials

随着纳米电子学从目前的22纳米技术节点继续扩展，并进入医疗、能源、国防和航天工业的新应用领域，对高性能和高可靠性电子设备的迫切需求正在出现，而现有技术无法满足这一需求。在纳米级运行所需的强电流、场和功率密度下，材料寿命从根本上损害了性能和可靠性。该项目的目的是通过计算设计提高纳米电子材料的性能和可靠性，从而使新的纳米电子应用和技术在医疗、能源、国防和航天工业中得以实现。具体来说，纳米电子材料的电应力通过电迁移、载流子键断裂和焦耳加热，将在四个关键的纳米电子材料技术重点：金属互连、绝缘电介质、半导体和相变记忆材料中进行探索。在这些技术重点中，研究计划的精确目标分别是：(1)设计最佳的铜合金解决方案，以实现延长金属互连寿命；(2)发现并消除低k互连介质中随时间变化的击穿通路；(3)为互补逻辑架构设计无偏置不稳定的半导体通道；(4)为固态存储器应用量身定制硫系材料的相变应力和漂移。这四个相关的研究方向是纳米电子学技术发展的核心。该计划将通过提供迫切需要的计算机辅助设计仿真工具来满足这些信息技术里程碑。此外，该项目的研究成果和方法也将广泛影响电子材料的许多其他领域，包括：太阳能、固态照明、纳米激光器、光电探测器、化学检测和基因测序传感器。

With nanoelectronics continuing to scale from the current 22 nm technology node and enter new applications in the medical, energy, defense, and space industries, a critical need is arising for high performance and high reliability electronic devices that is not met by existing technologies. At the intense electrical current, field, and power densities required to operate at the nanoscale, both performance and reliability are fundamentally compromised by material lifetimes. The aim of this program is to enhance the performance and reliability of nanoelectronic materials through computational design, and thereby enable new nanoelectronics applications and technologies in the medical, energy, defense, and space industries. Specifically, nanoelectronic materials electrical stressing through electromigration, carrier bond breaking, and joule heating, will be explored in four key nanoelectronic materials technology thrusts: metal interconnects, insulating dielectrics, semiconductors, and phase change memory materials. Within each of these technology thrusts, respectively, the precise objectives of the research program are to: (1) design optimal copper alloying solutions to achieve extended metal interconnect lifetimes; (2) discover and neutralize the time-dependent breakdown pathways in low-k interconnect dielectrics; (3) design bias instability free semiconductor channels for complementary logic architectures; (4) tailor phase change transition stressing and drift in chalcogenide materials for solid state memory applications. These four related research directions lie at the heart of nanoelectronics technology development. This program will meet these information technology milestones by providing urgently needed computer aided design simulation tools. Moreover, the research outcomes and methods developed in this program will also widely impact upon electronic materials in many other fields, including: solar energy, solid state lighting, nanolasers, photodetectors, chemical detection, and sensors for gene sequencing.