Compact Model Council
Encyclopedia
The Compact Model Council is a working group in the Electronic Design Automation
industry formed to choose, maintain and promote the use of standard models. Commercial and industrial analog simulators (such as SPICE
) need to add device models as technology advances (see Moore's law
) and earlier models become inaccurate. Before this group was formed, new transistor models
were largely proprietary, which severely limited the choice of simulators that could be used.
New models are submitted to the Council, where their technical merits are discussed, and then potential standard models are voted on. See the article SIMULATION: PSP transistor tapped for standard for an example of this process.
Some of the models supported by the Compact Modeling Council include:
Electronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
industry formed to choose, maintain and promote the use of standard models. Commercial and industrial analog simulators (such as SPICE
SPICE
SPICE is a general-purpose, open source analog electronic circuit simulator.It is a powerful program that is used in integrated circuit and board-level design to check the integrity of circuit designs and to predict circuit behavior.- Introduction :Unlike board-level designs composed of discrete...
) need to add device models as technology advances (see Moore's law
Moore's Law
Moore's law describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware: the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years....
) and earlier models become inaccurate. Before this group was formed, new transistor models
Transistor models
Transistors are simple devices with complicated behavior. In order to ensure the reliable operation of circuits employing transistors, it is necessary to scientifically model the physical phenomena observed in their operation using transistor models. There exists a variety of different models that...
were largely proprietary, which severely limited the choice of simulators that could be used.
New models are submitted to the Council, where their technical merits are discussed, and then potential standard models are voted on. See the article SIMULATION: PSP transistor tapped for standard for an example of this process.
Some of the models supported by the Compact Modeling Council include:
- BSIM3, a MOSFETMOSFETThe metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor is a transistor used for amplifying or switching electronic signals. The basic principle of this kind of transistor was first patented by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925...
model from UC Berkeley (see BSIMBSIMBSIM refers to a family of MOSFET transistor models for integrated circuit design. Accurate transistor models are needed for electronic circuit simulation, which in turn is needed for integrated circuit design...
). - BSIM4, a more modern MOSFET model, also from UC Berkeley.
- PSP, another MOSFET model. PSP originally stood for Penn StatePennsylvania State UniversityThe Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...
-PhilipsPhilipsKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
, but one author moved to ASUArizona State UniversityArizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
, and Philips spun off their semiconductor group as NXP Semiconductors. - BSIMSOI, a model for silicon on insulatorSilicon on insulatorSilicon on insulator technology refers to the use of a layered silicon-insulator-silicon substrate in place of conventional silicon substrates in semiconductor manufacturing, especially microelectronics, to reduce parasitic device capacitance and thereby improving performance...
MOSFETs. - HICUM or HIgh CUrrent Model for bipolar transistors, from CEDIC, Dresden University of TechnologyDresden University of TechnologyThe Technische Universität Dresden is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 36,066 students...
, Germany, and UC San Diego, USA. - MEXTRAM, a compact model for bipolar transistors that aims to support the design of bipolar transistor circuits at high frequencies in Si and SiGe based process technologies. MEXTRAM is developed and supported at Delft University of TechnologyDelft University of TechnologyDelft University of Technology , also known as TU Delft, is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands...
.