Advent calendar - December 15th - Luca Fehlings

In the Zernike Institute Advent Calendar, we are presenting 24 short spotlights in December. In these specials, we highlight PhD students, postdocs, support staff and technicians of our research groups and team - providing a glimpse in their typical day at work. In Episode 15 meet Luca Fehlings, PhD student in the Cognitive Systems group with Erika Covi.

I am a PhD student in the Cognitive Systems group with Erika Covi. As an engineer, I enjoy building tools and systems, which translates well into my research, where I build functional electronic circuits consisting of conventional CMOS(=transistor) technology and novel memory devices. To enable this, I characterize the electrical properties of HfO2-based ferroelectric capacitors to build accurate and computationally efficient models of these devices. I then use these models to simulate electronic circuits that my colleagues and I integrate into larger systems such as neural network accelerators that may enable more energy-efficient AI in the future. In a nutshell, we are building our very own computer chips using new circuit components and new design strategies that exploit the unique physical properties of these components. Because building such a chip is a very time-consuming endeavor, much of my work is dedicated to studying and improving the reliability of both memory devices and the CMOS circuits that surround them.

One of the best, and most challenging, aspects of my research is working on such a large interdisciplinary project. Building innovative hardware requires you to interact and communicate effectively with people from different disciplines, such as computer science, neuroscience or physics, while walking off the beaten spath in your own discipline where you yourself have to find the best way to move forward. It is also very rewarding that my research allows me to combine physical-analytical aspects with creative engineering with the goal to build a large system.

In my spare time, I usually relax by playing the guitar, cooking or baking. Otherwise, I like to spend my energy by biking through the countryside or doing improvisational theater.

See all Advent Calendar items 2024 here!