Project Summary

This project focuses on developing computational frameworks and high performance computational capability for modeling and simulation of applications in nanotechnology. This includes, in particular, semiconductor process and device applications, superconductivity modeling, MEMS and biological transport modeling. However the frameworks we are developing have potential use in other application areas such as microfluidics that we are also beginning to explore. The work involves investigation of new physical models for ultra-small scale processes and devices, and the development of associated numerical methods to solve them reliably and efficiently on high performance computing systems. Platforms of interest include parallel distributed memory supercomputers, Beowulf clusters, and clusters on the Grid. We have been developing particular expertise in Beowulf cluster implementations and applications. Our current work focuses on the following specific areas:

• Implementation of HPC methods for new classes of physical models in semiconductor device and superconductivity modeling, and in biological systems in the ultra-small regime. The specific areas of interest include the Ginzburg-Landau class of models for superconductivity, quantum carrier transport models for semiconductor devices, and open ionic channel transport in biological systems.

• Development of numerical solver strategies and algorithms to enable efficient large-scale and 3D simulation, including adaptive grids, preconditioners, iterative methods and efficient/stable integration methods.

• Development of distributed parallel and PC/workstation cluster computing capability for these areas. This includes implementing the application models and numerical methodology within the framework of community software such as the PROPHET and the MG2 dial-an-operator simulation platforms in a parallel cluster computing environment.

• Carry out supporting scalability and performance studies on different clusters and clusters on the Grid.

Our collaborators in this activity include: Prof. Dutton at Stanford University; other members of the NCSA Alliance nanotech team; Prof. W. B. Richardson at UT-San Antonio; industrial associates and other researchers in the U.S. and internationally. We are also collaborating with partners at Lucent where the PROPHET simulator was originally developed and with colleagues at Motorola. Recently we have initiated joint work with the team lead by Prof. Dongarra at U. Tennessee which involves testing and utilizing their parallel performance monitoring and optimizing tools.

Last Updated: May 09, 2002