N/A

The Modeling and Simulation Group at Florida A&M University and Florida State University is working on computational electronics, energy storage devices, magnetics, and electromagnetics.

• RandFlux: electronics, device modeling, energy storage
• HysterSoft (now part of RandFlux): magnetic hystereis modeling, noise, thermal relaxation

Faculties

• Petru Andrei, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University, USA. [ Webpage]

Students

• Vamsci Venkat Bevara, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University, USA.
• Mohit Mehta, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University, USA.
• Grayson Mixon, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University, USA.
• Soumak Mookherjee, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University, USA.
• Burcu Sanal, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University, USA.
• Daniel Hammer, Department of Mechanical Engineering at Florida State University, USA.
• Benjamin Salazar, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University, USA.
• Ayodeji Adedoyin, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University, USA.
• Liviu Oniciuc, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida State University, USA.
• Paul Basner
• Lauren Miller

Graduate students and post-docs

There are no post-doc or research assistant positions available at this time. Please check back regularly for openings.

Undergraduate students

There are a few REU positions available during the 2010-2013 accademic years and summer semesters . Please contact the program directors at each partner university for more information and applications.

The program director at FSU is: Dr. Petru Andrei, room B364.

The program director at FAMU is: Dr. Mark Weatherspoon, room B368.

Collaborations

Some of the research projecs of our Group are carrier out in collaboration with the:

• Stefan cel Mare University, Suceava, Romania
• Faculty of Physics at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Romania.
• Electronics Technology Division at Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D.C., USA
• Magnetic Materials Group at National Institute of Standards and Technology , Gaithersburg, MD, USA
• Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at Vienna University of Technology, Austria.

Computational nanoelectronics

In the computational nanoelectronics area we do research on the modeling, simulation, and analysis of circuits and semiconductor devices at nanoscale dimensions, where quantum mechanical effects play a major role. We focus primarily on the modeling and simulation of:

• modeling and simulation of nanoscale semiconductor devices such as MOSFETs, HEMTs, SOI, FinFET, IMOS, etc...
• analysis of random doping induced effects in semiconductor devices
• analysis of oxide roughness, line edge roughness, and random fixed charge induced effects in nanoscale devices
• analysis of noise in semiconductor devices
• redesign, optimization, and inverse problems in nanoscale semiconductor devices and circuits
• modeling and simulation of chemical gas sensors based on oxide-semiconductors (e.g. SnO2, ZnO,...) nanobelts
• fluctuations and noise in nanoscale devices and circuits

In 2004 our Group has started the RandFlux project. RandFlux is already recognized as a new-generation software for the analysis of inaccuracies and mismatches during the fabrication process of semiconductor devices. The software can simulate the effects of random doping, random oxide trapped charges, and random grain orientations on the electrical properties of nanoscale semiconductor devices and circuits. It is based on a novel perturbation technique for the analysis of fluctuations and noise in nanoscale devices (see Publications).

RandFlux can perform automatic redesign and optimization of semiconductor devices. By using an efficient minimization technique we optimize (i.e. recompute the doping profile and geometric dimensions of) semiconductor structures in order to minimize the random doping induced fluctuations and maximize the performance of the overall device or circuit. Our technique is based on a Lagrange multipliers method in which the minimization is performed by using a modified conjugate gradient technique.

Please visit our RandFlux website for more information on this project.

Power electronics

In the power electronics area we have developed techniques for the optimization of power electronic devices, including vertical and horizontal power MOSFETs, IGBTs, AlGaN/GaN heterojunction transistors, as well as other power devices. Our unique numerical algorithms allow the computation of "ideal" doping profile of a power device that minimizes the on-state resistance and maximizes the breakdown voltage of the device. These algorithms are very robust and can be applied to most industry standard power devices. Please feel free to contact us if you are an industry partner willing to optimize your power device structure. Our group is mostly focussing on the:

• modeling and simulation of power devices devices
• optimizations of the power devices
• solving inverse problems in power device electronics

The research on the power electronics area is based on our RandFlux project, started in 2004. Please visit the RandFlux website for more information.

Computational magnetics

In the computational magnetics area our Group focusses on the modeling and simulations of various magnetic systems hysteresis. We focus particularly on:

• scalar and vectorial phenomenological modeling of hystersis
• magnetic hystersis modeling in various ferrite materials, bulk and particulate systems
• thermal ralaxation in materials with hysteresis
• development of measurement and characterization algorithms for magnetic materials

Our main research project on the modeling and simulation of magnetic hysteresis is HysterSoft. The project is a combined research effort between our Group, Technical University of Vienna (Austria), and Alexandru I. Cuza University (Romania), and implements various algorithms for the identification, characterization, simulation, and analysis of hysteretic materials. The software is used for research and educational purposes by many groups worldwide, mostly in the magnetics area, but it can also be used for the modeling and analysis of hsyteretic phenomena in other areas such as economics, mechanics, electronics, etc.

Please visit our HysterSoft website for more information on this project.

Modeling and simulation of energy storage devices

In the energy storage devices area our Group focusses particularly on the modeling and simulations of various energy storage devices such as Li and othe metals based batteries, fuels cells, etc. We have developed comprehensive models and physics-based simulation software for the simulation of Li-air batteries (with both organic and aqeuous electrolytes).

Our simulation solftware is implemented in RandFlux which allows a mixed-mode simulation of energy storage and semiconductor devices.

Please visit our RandFlux website for more information on this project.

Electromagnetics

The Modeling and Simulation Group is also involved in a variety of computational electromagnetics problems such as:

• electromagnetic field computations by using Fast Multipole Methods
• scattering problem simulations
• real time simulations

Our Group is strongly involved in developping efficient ways of solving a variety of numerical problems based on the Fast Multipole Method (FMM). The FMM has been called one of the ten most significant algorithms in scientific computation discovered in the 20th century. The method allows the evaluation of the product of dense matrices (having some particular structure) with a vector in O[(N+M)ln(N+M)] operations, whereas direct multiplication requires O[MN] operations, where M and N represent the dimensions of the matrices. Although the FMM was initially developed for the computation of the electrostatic potential created by a large number of charges, lately it has found applications in a large number of areas ranging from chemistry and physics, to computer graphics and finance.

We have already implemented the FMM for a variety of applications, and we plan to make the codes available in the near future. Stay tuned!

Publications

Please visit the RandFlux website for a list of our publications related to computatioanal electronics.

Also visit the HysterSoft website for a list of our publications related to magnetics.

Various other publications of ours can be found here.

Upcoming and past conferences

Funding support

The Group of Modeling and Simulation at FAMU-FSU is or has been supported by:

• Army Research Laboratory
• Naval Research Laboratory
• National Science Foundation
• National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Technical University of Vienna
• Florida State University