This course pursues a parallel treatment of electrical and thermal issues in modern nanoelectronics, from fundamentals to system-level issues. Topics include energy transfer through electrons and phonons, mobility and thermal conductivity, power dissipation in modern devices (CMOS, phase-change memory, nanowires, nanotubes), circuit leakage, thermal breakdown, system-level issues, thermometry, and heat sinks.

This course is intended to bridge a gap for those of you with Electrical Engineering or Physics backgrounds who are interested in nanoscale power and thermal issues, and for those of you with Heat Transfer (Mechanical Engineering) backgrounds interested in nanoscale electronic issues. Material Scientists, Chemical Engineers and other interested parties are also encouraged to enroll. We will cover fundamentals as well as modern research topics, and would like to accommodate a broad range of backgrounds and interests. If you are unsure of your individual preparation for this class, please check with the instructor. Broadly speaking, a basic knowledge of solid-state physics, transistor operation, and familiarity with Matlab (or similar) would be ideal.

This course pursues a parallel treatment of electrical and thermal issues in modern nanoelectronics, from fundamentals to system-level issues. Topics include energy transfer through electrons and phonons, mobility and thermal conductivity, power dissipation in modern devices (CMOS, phase-change memory, nanowires, nanotubes), circuit leakage, thermal breakdown, system-level issues, thermometry, and heat sinks. Handouts are supplemented with papers from the research literature. Grading is based on homeworks, Wikipedia assignments, a final conference-level group paper, and oral presentations.

Topics:

• Introduction: Why Power Matters in Nano-Electronics
• Electronics Overview from Silicon to Package
• The Microscopic Origin of Macroscopic Laws:
• Low-Dimensional and Boundary effects
• Power in Electronic Devices
• Power in Integrated Circuits
• Power in Electronic Systems
• Power and Architecture
• FINAL In-Class Presentations

Course Website/Information

• Nanoscale Energy Transport and Conversion,” G. Chen, Oxford, (2004)
• Quantum Transport: Atom to Transistor, by S. Datta, Cambridge, (2006)
• Low-power CMOS VLSI circuit design, by K. Roy and S. Prasad, Wiley, (2000)

Two related textbooks are fully available online:

• A Heat Transfer Textbook, by J. H. Lienhard
• Principles of Semiconductor Devices, by B. Van Zeghbroek

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Eric Pop (2009), "Illinois ECE 598EP Hot Chips: Atoms to Heat Sinks," http://nanohub.org/resources/6163.

1. Illinois 1
2. material properties 1
3. nanoelectronics 2
4. thermal effect 1
5. thermal energy 1