24 August 2018

Silvaco and Purdue to co-develop scalable atomistic TCAD for next-generation devices and materials

© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.

Silvaco Inc of Santa Clara, CA, USA (which provides electronic design automation and IP software tools for process and device development), Purdue University and Purdue Research Foundation have formed a partnership to extend Moore’s law by modeling and simulating transistors and new memory technologies that approach atomistic scale in next-generation semiconductor processes and materials.

Silvaco will license Purdue University intellectual property from the Purdue Research Foundation, a private, non-profit foundation created to advance the university’s mission, sponsor research and open an office in the Purdue Technology Center.

For more than 20 years Silvaco has been providing TCAD (technology computer-aided design) tools for semiconductor device and process simulation, and its latest Victory TCAD tools are deployed at leading semiconductor companies worldwide. The agreement involves the commercialization of the NEMO tool suite, an atomistic nanoelectronics modeling and simulation tool that has been used by semiconductor companies for the investigation of advanced physics phenomena aimed at extending Moore’s law. The goal of the collaboration is to link NEMO with Silvaco’s Virtual Wafer Fab to provide the market with a true ab-initio to circuit level integrated co-optimization design platform.

“We are very excited to bring together the strong research expertise of the Purdue team in atomistic simulation along with Silvaco’s strong background in TCAD, modeling and circuit simulation,” says Eric Guichard, VP of the TCAD division at Silvaco. “The partnership will result in a powerful solution that enables path finding of advanced semiconductors well before running silicon, which ultimately saves time-to-market and hundreds of millions of dollars in development costs,” he adds.

“The NEMO tool suite represents the spearhead of nanotechnology modeling – both for well-controlled experimental conditions as well as large-scale fabrication reality,” comments Tillmann Kubis, a research assistant professor in Purdue’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in charge of the NEMO project. “Its commercial version, customized to industrial needs and infrastructure, will have high societal impact,” he believes. “I also think the fact that Silvaco is interested in Purdue intellectual property, sponsoring further research and plan to open an office here is a strong endorsement of the innovation and collaboration ecosystem at Purdue.”

Tags: Silvaco

Visit: www.silvaco.com

Visit: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECE