Quantum Liouville type Equation of Phonon transport in integrated circuits

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Dirk Schulz
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528336472

In order to enable an energy-efficient heat dissipation in integrated circuits, a precise understanding of the heat transport is important. Thin layers in particular play an essential role in modern components of electronics and photonics and are associated with special properties (e.g. higher mobility or reduced noise) especially because of the quantization effects that occur. First principal methods and methods originating from the use of the Boltzmann equation are available for the analysis, but are either too costly from the computational perspective or do not include quantization effects present in thin film structures. A transport model shall be developed to close the modeling gap between the first principle methods prevailing in physics and the conventional methods from the point of view of circuit technology prevailing in electronic engineering, so that essential properties of heat transport in integrated circuits can efficiently be captured. Ballistic processes and diffusion processes shall be adequately described, with which the time-dependent heat transport parallel (“in-flow”) or perpendicular ("out-flow") to thin layer structures can be characterized. For this purpose, a transport model in analogy to nanoelectronic applications shall be developed for phonons, which is based on a Quantum-Liouville type equation and allows the inclusion of phonon-phonon-scattering mechanisms relevant for the existence of heat transport.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants