Tyndall Researchers Lead International Project To Create Next-Generation Electronic Devices

Pan-European research team demystify nano and photonic codes

Scientists at Tyndall National Institute, Cork, are leading a European research project which will develop a test environment to help create the electronic and photonic devices of the future.

Led by Prof. Eoin P. O’Reilly, Head of Theory, Modelling and Design Centre, Tyndall National Institute, DEEPEN will involve Tyndall-based researchers working in close partnership with research teams from across Europe - ETH Zurich (Switzerland), OSRAM Opto Semiconductors (Germany), Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik (Germany), Synopsys& (Switzerland) and Tiberlab S.r.l. (Italy). The project will use the combined expertise in device design and nanomaterials of its members, to help revolutionise the design and implementation of future electronic and photonic devices.

Entitled ‘DEEPEN’ (from Atomic to Device Explicit simulation Environment for Photonic and Electronic Nanostructures), the three-year, EU-funded project is being formally launched this week in Athens, Greece at the Industrial Technologies 2014 Conference. The conference integrates nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials and new production technologies, and offers opportunities for developing valuable research and industry collaborations by showcasing cutting-edge research, latest innovations and rising companies from all around Europe.

DEEPEN is a direct response to industry’s need to track and analyse performance at the atomic scale of a design process. To address this issue, researchers are looking to develop an efficient and robust framework that allows different computer codes to be merged. Using this open-source framework, the integrated simulation tools will enable developers to track a device’s overall performance changes at a particularly detailed and precise level during testing.

Speaking at the Industrial Technologies 2014 Conference, Prof. O’Reilly said “The DEEPEN project gives us an opportunity to work with leading academic and industry partners in this challenging but highly rewarding area. Our work will have a direct impact on future device design and optimisation. In addition, our development of open source codes will help to open up this field to the wider research community”.

DEEPEN is part of a cluster of 5, FP7-funded projects being launched today at the Multiscale Modelling workshop in Athens. The Cluster is intended to enable knowledge exchange, to foster adoption of novel approaches for multi-scale modelling.

About Tyndall National Institute
Established with a mission to support industry and academia in driving research to market, Tyndall National Institute is one of Europe’s leading research centres in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) research and development and the largest facility of its type in Ireland. Established in 2004 as a successor to the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC founded in 1982) at University College Cork, the Institute employs over 460 researchers, engineers and support staff, with a full-time graduate cohort of 135 students generating over 200 peer-reviewed publications each year. 

With a network of 200 industry partners and customers worldwide, Tyndall generates around €30M income each year, 85% from competitively won contracts nationally and internationally. Tyndall is also a lead partner in European research partnerships in its core areas of ICT, communications, energy, health and the environment worth €44M, including €6M accruing to industry in Ireland (from Framework 7). Hosting the only full CMOS (metal oxide semiconductor) integrated circuit construction, Micro Electronic Mechanical systems (MEMS) and III-V Wafer Semiconductor fabrication facilities and services in Ireland, Tyndall is capable of prototyping new product opportunities for its target industries – electronics, medical devices, energy and communication. Tyndall is a globally leading Institute in its four core research areas of Photonics, Microsystems, Micro/Nanoelectronics and Theory, Modeling and Design. Tyndall is the lead institution for the Science Foundation Ireland funded Irish Photonics Integration Centre (IPIC). For more information, visit www.tyndall.ie.

About ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, offers an inspiring environment to 400 professors, 4,300 researchers and more than 15,000 students and supports them with world-class infrastructure. Close to 200 spin-off companies were created out of ETH Zurich since 1996, showing evidence for its innovative power. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE) 2012-13 ranks ETH Zurich #12 worldwide, being the best university outside the Anglo-American sphere. ETHZ is represented by the research group Nano-TCAD of the Integrated Systems Laboratory (ISL). Research at ISL covers the relevant aspects in TCAD of nanoelectronics like simulation and modelling of devices, atomistic simulation techniques, and quantum simulation. In the project DEEPEN ETHZ is work package leader of WP2 (electronic structure calculations) and contributes to WP3 (transport models), WP4 (simulation environment) and WP5 (advanced CMOS design).

About OSRAM Opto Semiconductors
OSRAM, with its headquarters in Munich, is one of the two leading lighting manufacturers in the world. Its subsidiary, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH in Regensburg (Germany), offers its customers solutions based on semiconductor technology for lighting, sensor and visualization applications. Osram Opto Semiconductors has production sites in Regensburg (Germany) and Penang (Malaysia). Its headquarters for North America is in Sunnyvale (USA). Its headquarters for the Asia region is in Hong Kong. Osram Opto Semiconductors also has sales offices throughout the world. For more information, visit www.osram-os.com.

About Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik
Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik (PDI) is a German research institute located in Berlin. It performs device-inspiring research as a lively symbiosis between materials science and solid state physics. The institute’s mission is the exploration of epitaxial materials and new functionalities for future information technologies. Special emphasis lies on the fabrication and investigation of low-dimensional structures in semiconductors. PDI provides over 1500 m² of laboratory space, covering a broad range of expertise from epitaxial growth to device processing, microstructural investigation, spectroscopic analysis, and computational modeling. The institute works closely with partners from industry and academia, and actively engages in the transfer of its knowledge and technologies to society. It is part of Forschungsverbund Berlin and member of the Leibniz Association.

About Synopsys
Synopsys is a leading provider of Technology CAD (TCAD) solutions for the Semiconductor Industry. Synopsys Switzerland LLC currently employs about 50 people in Zurich, most of them highly specialized scientists working as software developers or application engineers. Its main customers are R&D and process integration departments of leading semiconductor manufacturers world-wide. Synopsys’s Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) offers a comprehensive suite of products that includes the industry leading process and device simulation tools, as well as a powerful GUI-driven simulation environment for managing simulation tasks and analysing simulation results. With the multidimensional device simulator Sentaurus Device, Synopsys offers a modern simulation tool which gives the user the flexibility of implementing new device simulation and circuit models via a physical model interface (PMI).

About Tiberlab S.r.l.
Tiberlab S.r.l. is a spin-off of the University of Rome "Tor Vergata", established in 2008. The mission of the company is to develop up-to-date, innovative software solutions aimed to the multiscale design and simulation of electronic and optoelectronic devices and nanostructures. The market offer is dedicated both to academic research groups and to electronics and optoelectronics industry. tiberlab offers consulting services and end-user software. Our core product is tiberCAD, a multiphysics and multiscale software tool for design and optimization of innovative devices based on novel materials and technologies, such as quantum dot-based LEDs, nanowire FETs, III/V heterostructures, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). The multiscale approach allows the concurrent solution of physical models on different length scales, from device level to atomistic detail. Our commitment is to assure that our software solutions are always physically grounded and up to date with the last developments of nanoelectronics and nanotechnology. For more information, visit www.tiberlab.com.