arXiv subjects

Samuel S. H. Ng

Publications and source records attributed to Samuel S. H. Ng.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

$μ$Ed API: Towards a Shared API for Education Microservices

Learning at scale often requires domain-specific automation such as assessment and feedback. An organization locked in to a general learning platform without these specialist automations limits its pedagogical offering. An ecosystem of interoperable, platform-agnostic microservices for domain-specific automation would solve this problem. To develop an effective ecosystem, a standard interface (API) for education microservices is required. We propose an initial specification for a standard, platform-independent API for educational microservices, $μ$Ed. The API integrates functionality from existing systems in use at four institutions, which are adopting the new API. The API is initially specified for automation of feedback, assessment, and educational chatbots, with further service types planned. The API specification provided here enables the development of an ecosystem of education microservices that will facilitate automation in more domains, to more users, providing a richer learning experience in a wide range of disciplines.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2023

Simulating Charged Defects in Silicon Dangling Bond Logic Systems to Evaluate Logic Robustness

Recent research interest in emerging logic systems based on quantum dots has been sparked by the experimental demonstration of nanometer-scale logic devices composed of atomically sized quantum dots made of silicon dangling bonds (SiDBs), along with the availability of SiQAD, a computer-aided design tool designed for this technology. Latest design automation frameworks have enabled the synthesis of SiDB circuits that reach the size of $32\times10^3\,\text{nm}^{2}$ -- orders of magnitude more complex than their hand-designed counterparts. However, current SiDB simulation engines do not take defects into account, which is important to consider for these sizable systems. This work proposes a formulation for incorporating fixed-charge simulation into established ground state models to cover an important class of defects that has a non-negligible effect on nearby SiDBs at the $10\,\text{nm}$ scale and beyond. The formulation is validated by implementing it into SiQAD's simulation engine and computationally reproducing experiments on multiple defect types, revealing a high level of accuracy. The new capability is applied towards studying the tolerance of several established logic gates against the introduction of a single nearby defect to establish the corresponding minimum required clearance. These findings are compared against existing metrics to form a foundation for logic robustness studies.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Automated Atomic Silicon Quantum Dot Circuit Design via Deep Reinforcement Learning

Robust automated design tools are crucial for the proliferation of any computing technology. We introduce the first automated design tool for the silicon dangling bond quantum dot computing technology, which is an extremely versatile and flexible single-atom computing circuitry framework. The automated designer is capable of navigating the complex, hyperdimensional design spaces of arbitrarily sized design areas and truth tables by employing a tabula rasa double-deep Q-learning reinforcement learning algorithm. Robust policy convergence is demonstrated for a wide range of two-input, one-output logic circuits and a two-input, two-output half-adder, designed with an order of magnitude fewer SiDBs in several orders of magnitude less time than the only other half-adder demonstrated in the literature. We anticipate that reinforcement learning-based automated design tools will accelerate the development of the SiDB quantum dot computing technology, leading to its eventual adoption in specialized computing hardware.

cs.ET↗

arXiv2020

PoisSolver: a Tool for Modelling Silicon Dangling Bond Clocking Networks

Advancements in the fabrication of silicon dangling bonds (SiDBs) reveal a potential platform for clocked field coupled nanocomputing structures. This work introduces PoisSolver, a finite element simulator for investigating clocked SiDB systems in the SiQAD design tool. Three clocking schemes borrowed from prior work on quantum-dot cellular automata are examined as potential building blocks for a general clocking framework for SiDB circuits. These clocking schemes are implemented in SiQAD, and power estimates are performed with geometrically agnostic methods to characterise each clocking scheme. Clocking schemes using a 14 nm technology node are found to dissipate 10-100 uW cm-2 at 1 GHz and 1-10 W cm-2 at 1 THz.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗