Special PAP Lecture Series by Prof. Gerhard Klimeck

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The Lecture Series introduces the critical concepts underlying the state-of-the-art modeling of nanoelectronic devices. Quantitative modelling of 1D quantum transport in resonant tunneling diodes and 3D electronic structure in strained quantum dots provide the foundation for full 3D atomistic quantum transport in nanowires and ultra-scaled transistors. Three core fundamental concepts will be emphasized : (1) open systems vs. closed systems, 2) non-equilibrium systems vs. close-to-equilibrium systems, and 3) atomistic material representation vs. continuum matter representation.

Current-flowed electronic systems are inherently open systems with finite contacts that inject and extract carriers, in contrast to the closed systems typically assumed in quantum mechanics. Current flow under finite biases drives the central device region out of equilibrium, rendering traditional equilibrium-based approaches invalid at the nanometer scale, hence highlighting the importance of relaxation or carrier in contact region. At the nanometer scale, the concepts of device and material converge and vice versa, underscoring the need for appropriate atomistic representations and appreciate basis set representation to capture the important physics of semiconductor devices.

The lectures focus on the underlying theories and their application through nanoelectronic modeling tools such as NEMO 1- D, NEMO 3-D, OMEN, and NEMO5 to realistically extended devices.

We will also be exploring interactive online simulations on nanoHUB.org using the tools: (1) Piece-wise Constant Potential Barrier Tool, (2) Periodic Potential Lab, (3) Resonant Tunneling Diode Lab with NEGF,  (4) Quantum Dot Lab, (5) nanowire lab, and (6) Omenwire lab.

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About the Speaker

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Prof Klimeck is the Elmore Chaired Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University and co-directs nanoHUB and Chipshub. He also served at Purdue as Deputy CIO and Vice President for Academic Information Technology and previously worked at Texas Instruments and NASA/JPL/Caltech.

His research spans computational nanoelectronics, high-performance computing, and data analytics. He is a fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP), the American Physical Society (APS), of IEEE, of AAAS and the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (Germany). Gerhard published over 525 printed scientific articles that resulted in over 26,200 citations and an h-index of 80. Since 2002, he has led the growth of nanoHUB.org into a global platform serving over 2 million users annually and supporting 4,000+ courses worldwide.

NEMO, developed in Klimeck’s research groups at TI, NASA/JPL, and Purdue, set the benchmark for atomistic quantum transport modeling. NEMO1D pioneered predictive NEGF-based simulations for resonant tunneling diodes; NEMO3D enabled multimillion-atom quantum dot simulations; and NEMO5 unified 1D–3D transport and electronic structure modeling. Since 2015, NEMO5 has been used at Intel, commercialized by Silvaco, and further developed in-house at Samsung and TSMC by Klimeck’s former PhD students.