Technology Aware Design (TAD) is a research program that started in 2001 at IMEC (an international research & development organization), located at

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

, in Belgium.IMEC's TAD program homepage
. It anticipates the end of the traditional "

happy scaling Happiness, in the context of mental or emotional states, is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia. Since ...

" paradigm, where

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss", ) is a type of metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) fabrication process that uses complementary and symmetrical pairs of p-type and n-type MOSFE ...

technology and CMOS design evolved on formally separate tracks, the interface between the two being

standard cell In semiconductor design, standard cell methodology is a method of designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) with mostly digital-logic features. Standard cell methodology is an example of design abstraction, whereby a low-level v ...

, or SPICE compact models (see transistor models for circuit design). Today, both sides ( design and technology) are confronted with the need to understand the other in order to overcome new scaling induced issues. The TAD program pursues analysis and solutions for these scaling induced problems.

References

Semiconductor technology 2001 establishments in Belgium Science and technology in Belgium {{Tech-stub