An adaptive algorithm for single-electron device and circuit simulation

  • Authors:

  • Nicholas Allec;Robert G. Knobel;Li Shang

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada;Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada;Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems
  • Year:
  • 2010

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.02

Visualization

Abstract

Single-electron devices have been widely used in electronics and physics research, and are believed to be one of the potential alternatives to CMOS circuits due to their small size and ultra-low power dissipation. In the recent past, three simulation methods have been used for single-electron device and circuit analysis: the Monte Carlo method, the master equation method, and SPICE using analytic models. Among these, the Monte Carlo method provides excellent accuracy, but is too slow for large-scale circuit simulation. In this work, we propose and develop an adaptive simulation technique based on the Monte Carlo method. This technique significantly improves the time efficiency while maintaining accuracy for single-electron device and circuit simulation. We have shown it is possible to reduce simulation time up to nearly 40 times and maintain an average propagation delay error of 3.4% compared to a nonadaptive Monte Carlo method.