Carl-Mikael Zetterling is a professor and research area co-ordinator for Integrated Devices and Circuits at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology at Kista, Sweden. Dr. Zetterling received his Ph.D. from KTH in 1997, where he also obtained an M.Sc.E.E. included among his research interests are process technology and device design for Sic devices, and dielectrics for SiC MOSFETS.

With an h-index of 17, Dr. Zetterling has 160 internationally published articles and contributions to his credit. Included among them are: editing one book about process technology for silicon carbide devices; co-writing one book on plagiarism prevention; eight invited talks; and five book chapters.

He resides in Stockholm.

 

 

 

 

 

1. What initially sparked your interest in nanoscience?

It was a gradual thing. I am an Electrical Engineer, and I did research on SiC devices for my Ph.D. My teaching in microelectronics has gradually slipped into the nano-regime of course, as we today have nanoelectronics in our computers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. What attracted you to nanoHUB.org?

 

The possibility to let students use simulation tools on their own time, without having to sign up for special computer labs. Also the simple web interface lowered the learning threshold significantly. Previously we used Silvaco and it took too long before students were working with the semiconductor physics rather than the mechanics of the interface, and we had to run the labs in computer rooms. There were always things going wrong during the lab and both teachers and students were dissatisfied.

 

3. What tools and resources are most helpful to you?

 

I use MOSFET and PN junction lab a lot. The students can practice extracting device parameters, and scaling of MOSFETs can be tested even if not all models are valid at the shorter gate lengths. We use Nanomos 3.5 to investigate different transport models. FETToy is used for learning ballistic modeling. We also had a Ph.D. course entirely using FETToy and Mark Lundstrom's book (with Guo) on nanoscale transistors. In a new Ph.D. course we will try Archimedes for some of the labs. By the way the course text is the second edition of Lundstrom’s Fundamentals.

 

4. How have the students responded to nanoHUB?

 

We did have some difficulties at first; for instance, they couldn’t log in for a while, but that was fixed pretty quickly after I submitted a trouble ticket. When I introduce nanoHUB I carefully motivate my students on why they should use it. I encourage them to register so that they can have the storage they need; if the WiFi fails while you are doing a simulation, for example, you don’t lose your work.

 

5. Are there lectures or presentations that you find especially interesting?

 

I have looked at several of Mark Lundstrom’s lectures, and used slides from the ballistic modeling (resource 491) and the primer to simulation (resource 980). One year I even used the recorded lecture on ballistic modeling in class. However, personally I find it a bit boring to listen to an entire lecture this way, so mostly I download the slides and look at them first.

 

6. You work with students at the undergraduate, graduate and advanced graduate levels. Is there a difference in how each group responds to nanoHUB?

 

Actually I work mainly with master’s and Ph.D. students, and hardly any at the bachelor level. The response depends more on the maturity of the student regarding computer usage. Also, having the presentations available as PDFs is extremely useful; I have downloaded many and use them. I’ll pick a few of them and research them for my own slides and then tell students that if they want to see the whole story they can log on to nanoHUB.

 

7. Simulation of Semiconductor Devices and Design of Nano Semiconductor Devices are Ph.D. level courses that use nanoHUB. How have students responded to its use?

 

Most of them enjoy using nanoHUB in their homework. To help students who are unused to computer simulation, we have sessions where they can come in with their laptops and get help from a teaching assistant, while working on the homework. The really interested students I try to inspire with some more challenging tasks. In the Device course I had a competition this year to design a transistor with optimal drive current under some conditions, and I published a high score list on the course home page. In the simulation course I mix the homework; some use Matlab, other Comsol Multiphysics, and others use nanoHUB. Whenever possible I have the students check their results using another tool or hand calculations.

 

8. Some students may shy away from using simulation tools because they do not understand how they work. Do you think simulation is being used enough in semiconductor education?

 

There has to be a balance. In the first course (at the bachelor level) I think students should do hand calculations on traditional 1D special cases. It is not until a second course that I introduce nanoHUB. I also think time has to be allowed to give at least a simplified explanation of how the tools work. I usually describe 1D FDM solution of Poisson’s law to give them an idea of how a computer could solve differential equations and what discretization is.

 

9. How can nanoHUB be improved?

 

I am missing a free process simulation tool! I am looking for a way to let students play around with a process tool, and want something that will let them look at doping profiles and cross sections.

 

10. What advice would you give those who are seeking careers in nanotechnology?

 

Think BIG! There is no substitute for hard work and basic knowledge of physics and electronics. I see some students mainly interested in the physics of new devices ... such as spin, nano, etcetera... who do not bother to learn about the main competitor to all new technologies: the silicon MOSFET.

 

11. You are an advocate for plagiarism prevention in education. Why does plagiarism happen, and what can educators do to prevent it?

 

There are many reasons why plagiarism occurs. Some students are simply not aware of it, and that’s why I talk about it already in my first lecture and mention it in the course information. I also try to lead by example and always carefully include references to other people’s work when I use figures in my lectures etc. To avoid some of the copying of homework, I have tried individualized tasks, where some parameters are different. If the task is too difficult, this can lead to student plagiarism. Therefore I try to start off with easier tasks, and also show more step by step in these exercises so that the students can learn and build up to the understanding needed in the final tasks. By spreading out the deadlines during the course I get them to start early. Some tasks I will also ask for draft versions, where I can give them feedback on plagiarism without having to report them. This is expanded more in the book I co-wrote with Jude Carroll titled “Guiding students away from plagiarism” (it was a project at KTH 2008/09 to increase awareness of plagiarism), available electronically at http://www.kth.se/plagiarism. A related topic is research ethics. I recently read “Plastic Fantastic” about the Hendrik Schon affair, and I found it so good that I plan on making all our Ph.D. students read it in a course.

 

12. Tell us a bit about your life outside of the classroom. How do you enjoy spending your personal time?

 

I have a son who is three years old, so most personal time goes to him. When he is asleep I enjoy reading books about crime or science fiction, but I also read nonfiction. I also enjoy chess.

 

13. Do you have other comments?

 

Perhaps not related to simulation, but in order to liven up the lectures in my courses I use peer- instruction, a method developed at Harvard by Eric Mazur. His work is inspiring.

 

14. Thank you for your time, then, Carl-Mikael.

 

Thank you.