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On June 30, 1948, AT&T Bell Labs unveiled the transitor to the world, creating a spark of explosive economic growth that would lead into the Information Age. William Shockley led a team of researchers, including Walter Brattain and John Bardeen, who invented the device. Like the existing triode vacuum tube device, the transistor could amplify signals and switch currents on and off, but the transistor was smaller, cheaper, and more efficient. Moreover, it could be integrated with millions of other transistors onto a single chip, creating the integrated circuit at the heart of modern computers.

Today, most transistors are being manufactured with a minimum feature size of 60-90nm--roughly 200-300 atoms. As the push continues to make devices even smaller, researchers must account for quantum mechanical effects in the device behavior. With fewer and fewer atoms, the positions of impurities and other irregularities begin to matter, and device reliability becomes an issue. So rather than shrink existing devices, many researchers are working on entirely new devices, based on carbon nanotubes, spintronics, molecular conduction, and other nanotechnologies.

Learn more about transistors from the many resources on this site, listed below. Use our simulation tools to simulate performance characteristics for your own devices.

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1. Electron Phonon Interaction in Carbon Nanotube Devices

   28 Jun 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Sayed Hasan

   With the end of silicon technology scaling in sight, there has been a lot of interest in alternate novel channel materials and device geometry. Carbon nanotubes, the ultimate one-dimensional (1D) wire, is one such possibility. Since the report of the first CNT transistors, lots has been learned...

2. Modeling Quantum Transport in Nanoscale Transistors

   28 Jun 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Ramesh Venugopal

   As critical transistor dimensions scale below the 100 nm (nanoscale) regime, quantum mechanical effects begin to manifest themselves and affect important device performance metrics. Therefore, simulation tools which can be applied to design nanoscale transistors in the future, require new theory...

3. Guidelines for Writing NEEDS-certified Verilog-A Compact Models

   19 Jun 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Tianshi Wang, Jaijeet Roychowdhury

   This talk contains a brief introduction to Verilog-A and suggests some initial guidelines for writing Verilog-A versions of NEEDS models. For more about the history of Verilog-A and additional guidelines for writing Verilog-A models, see the presentation by Drs. Geoffrey Coram and Colin McAndrew.

4. Introduction to Compact Models and Circuit Simulation

   19 Jun 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Tianshi Wang, Jaijeet Roychowdhury

   The presentation is a gentle introduction to compact models, basic circuit simulation concepts, and flows for developing compact models. The roadmap for the NEEDS-SPICE platform, being developed to ease the process of developing simulation-ready compact models for novel nanodevices, is briefly...

5. NEEDS Introduction

   19 Jun 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Mark Lundstrom

   NEEDS is an initiative supported by the National Science Foundation and the Semiconductor Research Corporation with a mission to develop the critical missing link needed to transform nanoelectronic materials and device research into electronic systems – physics-based compact models for...

6. NEEDS Workshop on Compact Modeling

   19 Jun 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Mark Lundstrom, Jaijeet Roychowdhury

   Advanced inresearch promise a new era of electronics – one that harnesses the capabilities of novel nano-­‐engineered materials and devices either alone or in conjunction with powerful silicon platforms. Compact models connect basic work on materials and device physics to circuits and systems....

7. Verilog-A: Present Status and Guidelines

   19 Jun 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Geoffrey Coram

   Verilog-A is the standard language for compact model development and implementation.This talk provides some background on the rationale for and development of Verilog-A,summarizes the current status of the language, and provides a short introduction andsome tips for writing good compact models...

8. [Illinois] CNST 2012: Translational Research on Micro and Nanobionics Devices for Mobile and Social Sensing Applications

   02 Jun 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Gang Logan Liu

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9. Analysis of DC Electrical Conductivity Models of Carbon Nanotube-Polymer Composites with Potential Application to Nanometric Electronic Devices

   12 Mar 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Rafael Vargas-Bernal, Gabriel Herrera-Pérez, Ma. Elena Calixto-Olalde, Margarita Tecpoyotl-Torres

   The design of nanometric electronic devices requires novel materials for improving their electrical performance from stages of design until their fabrication. Until now, several DC electrical conductivity models for composite materials have been proposed. However, these models must be valued to...

10. ECE 695A Reliability Physics of Nanotransistors

    17 Jan 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad Alam

    This course will focus on the physics of reliability of small semiconductor devices. In traditional courses on device physics, the students learn how to compute current through a device when a voltage is applied.

11. ECE 695A Lecture 1: Reliability of Nanoelectronic Devices

    11 Jan 2013 | | Contributor(s):: Muhammad Alam

    Outline:Evolving Landscape of ElectronicsPerformance, Variability, and ReliabilityClassification of ReliabilityCourse InformationConclusions

12. ECE 606 Lecture 27: Looking Back and Looking Forward

    20 Dec 2012 | | Contributor(s):: Gerhard Klimeck

13. ECE 606 Lecture 26: The Future of Computational Electronics

    20 Dec 2012 | | Contributor(s):: Gerhard Klimeck

    Future Transistors and Single Atom Transistors; New Modeling Tools (NEMO); nanoHUB: Cloud Computing - Software as a Service

14. ECE 606 Lecture 21: MOS Electrostatics

    26 Nov 2012 | | Contributor(s):: Gerhard Klimeck

15. ECE 606 Lecture 22: MOScap Frequence Response/MOSFET I-V Characteristics

    26 Nov 2012 | | Contributor(s):: Gerhard Klimeck

16. ECE 606 Lecture 23: MOSFET I-V Characteristics/MOSFET Non-Idealities

    26 Nov 2012 | | Contributor(s):: Gerhard Klimeck

17. ECE 606 Lecture 24: MOSFET Non-Idealities

    26 Nov 2012 | | Contributor(s):: Gerhard Klimeck

18. ECE 606 Lecture 20: Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor

    17 Nov 2012 | | Contributor(s):: Gerhard Klimeck

19. ECE 606 Lecture 19: Bipolar Transistors Design

    17 Nov 2012 | | Contributor(s):: Gerhard Klimeck

20. ECE 606 Lecture 18: Bipolar Transistors a) Introduction b) Design

    05 Nov 2012 | | Contributor(s):: Gerhard Klimeck