PhD Studentship: High-performance Computational Techniques and Numerical Methods for the Electromagnetic Simulation of Semiconductor and Communications Devices

This PhD project is at the intersection of electromagnetism, numerical methods, and high-performance parallel computing, with application towards the design and optimisation of integrated circuits, antennas, and electromagnetic metasurfaces.

The computer-aided simulation of electromagnetic fields is critical in the design of most computing and communications devices, such as high-speed interconnects in semiconductor devices, large antenna arrays for satellite communication, and advanced electromagnetic surfaces with unconventional material properties. As these devices continue to become more complex and operate at ever-increasing frequencies, there is a growing need for new high-performance electromagnetic simulation technologies to enable rapid design and optimisation in both research and industry.

Towards meeting these needs, this PhD project will involve the research and development of new computational technologies, based on the boundary element and finite element methods, in a high-performance computing context. The work will include, but is not limited to: investigating new mathematical formulations of the underlying physics; developing fast algorithms and numerical methods that leverage modern parallel computing paradigms (e.g., MPI, CUDA, etc.); designing and managing new electromagnetic solvers and associated codebases in C++ and/or Python. This is a particularly good opportunity for students who are interested in interdisciplinary research across electrical engineering / electromagnetism, numerical methods, numerical mathematics, high-performance computing, and computational science. Time permitting, we may also explore embedding these new computational methods into optimisation and machine learning contexts.

The new computational techniques developed will be geared towards the following key application areas: the simulation of electromagnetic fields in high-speed electrical interconnects in the semiconductor industry; the prediction of the electromagnetic performance of communications devices such as antenna arrays; and the modelling of advanced electromagnetic structures such as metasurfaces, which allow for unconventional control and manipulation of electromagnetic fields.

Students who enjoy, and can demonstrate competence in, two or more of the following areas are encouraged to get in touch. Please note that you **do not** have to check all of the boxes, but you should be excited to learn about the ones you don’t check!

• Familiarity with the theory of electromagnetic fields and waves.
• Experience with programming in C++ and / or Python.
• Some exposure to parallel computing, e.g., OpenMP, MPI, CUDA, etc.
• Experience with numerical methods such as FDTD, FEM, BEM, etc.
• Basic knowledge of numerical linear algebra concepts, such as matrix factorization and decomposition algorithms.
• Familiarity with numerical optimisation techniques.

Funding notes:

Full funding is available for UK students only. However, non-UK students who have, or are eligible to apply for, your own source(s) of full or partial funding are also welcome to get in touch. You can search for sources of funding at: www.birmingham.ac.uk/pgfunding. For details of the funding available and advice on making your application, please contact: dr@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Supervisors: Dr Shashwat Sharma (s.sharma.11@bham.ac.uk)

References:

Feel free to look through my past publications to get a sense of the work we will do together: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Xwh6NJUAAAAJ&hl=en

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