The aim of the Theory and Modelling working group is to create a venue for discussing different approaches to the conception, design and modelling of new nanoscale devices, circuits and architectures.

The scope of modelling tools should go beyond single devices and basic circuits, including complex functional units and interconnects, which are expected to play an essential role in nanoscale architectures. Indeed, as device dimensions are shrunk and non-classical effects are exploited to obtain device functionalities, the traditional description of a circuit as a combination of components, each described by current-voltage characteristics at the leads and connected by means of ideal conductors, is fading away: this requires the development of a novel hierarchy of multi-scale simulation tools, distinct from the traditional approaches that have been so successful in the field of microelectronics. The WG will promote and support efforts in such a direction, with the aim of defining common standards for a hierarchy of modelling tools for advanced nanoelectronics.

models, establishing contacts with experimental groups willing to fabricate test structures and characterize them. Such validation is essential for the development of simulation tools offering quantitatively reliable predictive capabilities, which are in turn instrumental for the evaluation of proposed new device and architectural concepts and their comparison with existing technologies, in particular end-of-the-roadmap CMOS.

The following topics will be discussed in the meetings, organized during the FET-Cluster workshops or on other occasions, such as European conferences gathering a significant number of researchers active in the field of modelling:

• Development of integrated multi-scale approaches to the simulation of devices, circuits and complete architectures of interest within the field of Emerging Nanoelectronics
• Definition of a set of common standards for the validation of simulation codes vs. experimental results, with the aim of achieving reliable quantitative predictive capabilities
• Creation of a shared awareness about the ongoing theoretical efforts, in order to enhance the overall efficiency of the research efforts and avoid duplication and the associated waste of resources
• Organization of events connected with the activity of the NanoICT HUB: presentations, tutorials, for the expansion of the code collection and the inclusion of new on-line services, such as forums for the lively discussion of new proposed device and architectural concepts, with the participation of representatives of the industry
• Definition of protocols suitable for the efficient evaluation, by means of realistic and trusted simulation tools, of new proposed technologies and devices, in order to avoid a waste of resources in the pursuit of approaches that can be shown to be affected by intrinsic problems, if quantitatively reliable modelling is used at an early stage, instead of idealized representations