Polizzi receives $400k CAREER grant to create nano-device simulations

Eric Polizzi, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a new suite of computer simulation methods to tackle the challenges created by designing, modeling and testing nano-devices that become more miniaturized every year. Polizzi’s research can be applied to simulations ranging from material sciences and chemistry to nano-electronics and bio-nanotechnology.

As the NSF panel noted when reviewing Polizzi’s project, “This is a must-fund proposal, because it would provide a unique and important tool to the entire Moore’s Law research community and beyond.”

“We are creating nano-devices that are smaller and smaller,” says Polizzi about his project. “To make such devices as silicon nanowire, carbon nanotube transistors, nanoribbons or a hybrid combination of those, it requires a lot of experimental research. Simulation becomes more and more important because it’s flexible and much less expensive than experimentation.”

Polizzi received his grant from the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. CAREER is the NSF’s most prestigious program for young faculty members, and it “recognizes and supports the early career development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century,” according to the NSF. Polizzi is the 22nd faculty member from the College of Engineering to be awarded the CAREER or its equivalent.

In nano-electronics, modeling and simulation have become critical for supplementing experimental approaches while designing, characterizing and testing new devices. One objective of Polizzi’s research is perfecting the computational modeling required for creating future generations of high-speed, high-function, electronic devices. The project aims at ever higher levels of detail and realism in these simulations.

“These simulations must be fast,” sums up Polizzi, “and they must be accurate.”

Polizzi is using his diverse background in fundamental physics, mathematical modeling, device engineering and computer science to create high-performance computing tools from a multidisciplinary perspective. Before coming to the College of Engineering in 2005, Polizzi was a senior research scientist in computer science and a postdoctoral research associate in electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. He has also worked as a research and teaching associate in applied mathematics at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse, France. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in physics and his Ph.D. in applied mathematics at the University of Toulouse.

“So I start with addressing the quantum physics, mathematical modeling, numerical techniques, algorithmic methodologies and their implementation on parallel computing platforms, and finally I can perform the simulation,” says Polizzi about his scientific modeling process

Miniaturization has provided opportunities for the electronics industry to improve the
speed and efficiency of the transistor operations and computing power of processors. Nowadays, transistor operations are performed at the nanometer scale, but aggressive downscaling has caused many devices to reach their quantum limits and create many problems, including nanoscale fluctuations and leakage processes induced by quantum-mechanical tunneling. The continuing miniaturization of the devices will require drastic changes in the design and operation of the basic building blocks in computer technology.

Polizzi’s methods will allow an order-of-magnitude speedup in the modeling stage, which is extremely important for the designers of devices, circuits and chips while running their simulations numerous times in search of the best design. The suite of modeling methods being developed by Polizzi will also be essential for understanding the fundamental physics governing the operation of novel nano-devices that are under development and promise to have a profound impact on the flagging world economy.

February 6, 2009.

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