EE Education in the Nanotech Era

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EE Education in the Nanotech Era

• R. Cavin, III
• ECEDHA Annual Meeting
• Oahu, Hawaii
• March 11, 2006

2
Outline

• EE and Impact on the Society
• Current Hiring Needs
• Technology Latency and Education
• Some Technology Challenges
• Future EE Education Strategy

3
Examples of the Impact of 1980s Basic Research
on Products Widely Used Today

• Basic research conducted in the 1980s resulted in
  remarkable changes in society today

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University Research conducted in the 1980s
Impact on the Society
Basic Research
Impact on the Society
University
Microchips with hundreds of millions and billions
transistors
Precise Control of Atoms in Semiconductor
Materials
Stanford
Cell-phone displays
Bright energy efficient traffic lights
NCSU
Single-crystals of SiC and GaN
Cornell-MIT--CalTech--Columbia
Laser crystallization of amorphous silicon
Flat panel displays
pocket memory sticks
Hot-electron injection in thin films of insulators
Berkeley
digital cameras
iPod nano
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Electrical Computer Engineers Have Made a
Profound Impact on Society

• ECEs have contributed to almost every aspect of
  energy, communication and information processing
  technologies
• How was this enabled?
• Abstraction is a necessity since we cant
  (easily) see electrons!
• We developed useful intuitive models for the
  basic physics of the devices that we utilize
• ECEs therefore have had engineering insight and
  that has enabled creativity
• We learned to think constructively about systems
• Our field has offered a fertile ground for
  innovation

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SRC Hiring Needs Projection2006

• Input From an SRC Member Survey

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Hiring Needs Survey (preliminary)

• For the most recently completed year (either
  calendar or fiscal), what is the ratio of
  BS/MS/PhD technical degree students hired by your
  company? Please list by major functional areas.

Average input from 5 companies. Only one company
provided functional breakdown.
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Hiring Needs Survey (preliminary)

• For the upcoming year (either calendar or
  fiscal), how many students does your company plan
  to hire in the following thrust areas?

Thrust s are total from 4 companies one company
provided input by SA which is comprehended in SA
total. Column thrust stack are in same order,
e.g., Verification 39
DS 452
CADTS 203
NMS 184
ICSS 176
IPS 144
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Hiring Needs Survey (preliminary)

• In the next year (either calendar or fiscal),
  what is the highest percentage of students from
  export-controlled/embargoed countries your
  company may be able to hire in technical areas?
• Input from 4 companies ranged from 2 to no limit
• From your company's point of view, what is an
  acceptable percentage of students from export
  controlled/embargoed countries in the SRC student
  population?
• Average from 4 companies 12
• Comment from one company Bigger issue is
  availability of H1-B visas

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RD timescale and education

• A typical latency time in the semiconductor
  industry from 1st research publication to 1st
  production is about 12 years
• What technologies are likely to be extant in
  twelve years? 2006122018
• Can we utilize research results emerging today as
  an indicator of what ECE curriculums should be
  moving toward?
• Its a turkey shoot!

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There is a Diversity of Opinion on Education Needs
In the sense of education, the physics of
semiconductor devices ended with the book by S.
M. Sze.
S. M. Sze, Physics of Semiconductor Devices
(Wiley Sons, 1981)
Completely new physics is needed to describe
nanodevices
We believe that both statements are not quite
accurate. Physics remains the same. However the
description framework needs to be changed
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What Kind of Questions Will ECE Students be Asked
to Address in the Next Decade?

• Maybe
• Where do electrons go if I only inject a few into
  a conductor?
• What is electron spin and how can I use it?
• If I operate the device out of equilibrium with
  the thermal environment, can I beat the kTln(2)
  heat dissipation limit?
• How can I encode information into matter so that
  it will form a structure that I desire?
• Are there any ideas on how I can design systems
  with billions of components so that they function
  only as I intend and so that they are efficiently
  manufacturable?
• How do I go about designing a material that meets
  the set of specifications that I have been
  handed?
• How am I going to manage heat flows on the order
  of 1000w/m2?
• What materials should I use to design an
  acceptable electronic interface to living tissue?
• What technology should I use to develop a
  cognitive machine?

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The Physics of Nano-devices

• EE students need a good grasp of the physical
  sciences, however a new framework needs to be
  developed
• For example, the standard formalism of Quantum
  Mechanics is not best suited for engineers (It is
  elegant and a mathematical tour-de-force!)
• Most efforts are spent to solve partial
  differential equations
• Difficult to connect QM to practical devices
• Small room for intuition
• Physical sciences for engineers intuitively
  straightforward models described by simple
  analytical expressions will help drive innovation

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Three Basic Equations
All physical systems are governed by these
relations, no matter what state variables are
chosen!
Boltzman constraint on minimum switching energy
Heisenberg constraint on minimum device size
Carnot constraint on our ability to isolate a
system from the environment.
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Conclusions

• The breadth of physical understanding required
  for ECE graduates will grow but we think that
  educators should emphasize simple intuitive
  models that the student can build on as needed
• ECE graduates will find themselves applying their
  skills to increasingly diversified fields and
  facing intense competition
• Certainly there will be new understanding
  emerging from nanotechnology but we shouldnt be
  intimidated by it we think that our students
  should be provided with usable physical models
  across the spectrum of likely applications

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Three books we can recommend

• L. Brillouin, Science and Information Theory
  (1962 Academic Press)
• J. Singh, Quantum Mechanics - Fundamentals and
  Applications to Technology (1997 Wiley Sons)
• W. Buckel and R. Kleiner, Superconductivity
  (2004 Wiley-VCH)
• More books need to be written!