The Compact Model Council has recently elected MEXTRAM as a world standard transistor model. Since 2001 MEXTRAM is hosted and supported by DIMES of Delft University of Technology. Philips Research originally developed the model.

The Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submicron-technology (DIMES) at TU Delft in, has received the mission to host and support the bipolar compact transistor model MEXTRAM (Most EXquisite TRAnsistor Model) as a world standard. The Compact Model Council (CMC) is financially supporting DIMES with an amount of US$ 50,000.- annually for that purpose. The team of Dr. Slobodan Mijalkovic at the High-Frequency Technology and Components (HiTeC) group headed by Prof. Joachim Burghartz will be in charge of this mission. They have been working at the model from 2001.

IC designers use circuit simulation software to verify the electrical behaviour of their circuit designs before the time consuming and costly fabrication process is started. Compact models, which describe the behaviour of transistors in an analytic way, form the key elements in circuit simulators. The MEXTRAM model, developed by Henk de Graaff, Willy Kloosterman and Jeroen Paasschens of Philips Research, provides a better accuracy for bipolar devices. This enables design optimization and shorter design cycles, and means that even designs with large system-on-chip ICs are right first time.

Standardization of the transistor models is becoming crucial, as major semiconductor manufacturers are more and more offering foundry services to lower the extremely high manufacturing costs. A semiconductor foundry is dealing with many customers who may be accustomed to different transistor models as basis of their design of electronic circuits. To limit cost and task complexity, semiconductor foundries are therefore most interested in the definition of a standard transistor model, which would be used by all their customers. Therefore the CMC, a consortium of representatives from over 20 major semiconductor manufacturers, had the mission to determine world standard transistor compact models for the two basic types of active semiconductor devices, the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) and the bipolar transistor, of which the latter is modelled by the MEXTRAM model.

DIMES/HiTeC has established a Mextram Users Group (MUG) to further develop MEXTRAM, to implement the model into design and simulation tools, and to collect suggestions on those developments from the member companies in CMC. Meetings and a yearly workshop are organized in conjunction with major conferences. Next to that general mission HiTeC is carrying out special development tasks in compact modeling that are sponsored by the Dutch Technology Foundation (STW) and various semiconductor companies like Philips, IBM, Infineon, Agilent, TSMC, Intersil, and Texas Instruments.

DIMES is a research institute at Delft University of Technology, hosting about 250 researchers who are engaged in Microelectronics and Nanoscience. The five research themes of DIMES are High-Frequency Technology for Communications, Smart Microsystems, Micro&Nano Precision Engineering, Emerging Computer Technologies, and Nanoelectronics

The institute hosts state-of-the-art integrated-circuit (IC), nanofabrication facilities, special application labs, a microwave components lab, and a circuits&system laboratory
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HiTeC is a laboratory within the department of Microelectronics and Computer Engineering at the faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science of TU Delft. Here, research in high-frequency technology ranging from materials and device technology to RF circuit design is conducted.

Additional information can be found on the internet:
http://hitec.ewi.tudelft.nl/mug/
http://www.dimes.tudelft.nl/
http://www.eigroup.org/cmc/bipolar/default.htm

And you can contact:
Dr. Slobodan Mijalkovic Prof.dr. Joachim Burghartz
Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology
DIMES / HiTeC DIMES / HiTeC
+31.15-2785786 +31.15-2786234
s.mijalkovic@ewi.tudelft.nl burghartz@dimes.tudelft.nl