Dr. Timothy Boykin

Professor, ECE

Contact

301 Sparkman Drive
Engineering Building
Room 263E
Huntsville, AL 35899
Campus Map

256.824.6269
boykint@uah.edu

Biography

Timothy Boykin's research centers on the physics of quantum wells, superlattices, nanowires, nanoribbons, and other quantum-confined heterostructures. Most of his work has involved full-bandstructure modeling these structures with empirical tight-binding techniques. Highlights of his research include the first numerically-stable, realistic bandstructure empirical tight-binding calculation for a resonant-tunneling diode including space-charge regions; The generalized eigenproblem method for obtaining surface and interface states; Analytic effective mass expressions for and investigations of the capabilities of many commonly employed tight-binding models; Electromagnetic interactions in tight-binding; Tight-binding strain models; Valley-splitting in Si quantum wells for quantum computing devices; Brillouin zone unfolding and approximate bandstructures of semiconductor alloys and alloy nanodevices; Multi-band tight-binding models for graphene; Semiconductor surface states; and Brillouin zone unfolding to find approximate bandstructures for crystals with vacancies. He was elected Fellow of APS in 2011 and elevated to Fellow of IEEE in 2018 in recognition of this work.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, 1992
  • M.S., Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, 1988
  • B.S., Electrical Engineering (Summa Cum Laude), Rice University, 1987

Honors & Awards

  • Fellow, IEEE (2018)
  • Fellow, American Physical Society (2011)
  • UAH Outstanding Engineering Faculty Award (2012)
  • ACM Gordon Bell Prize, Honorable Mention-SC11 (2011)
  • UAH Foundation Research Award (2001)

Expertise

  • Full-bandstructure modeling of nanostructures/devices
  • Tight-binding models of semiconductor heterostructures

Recent Publications

  • Mondol Anik Kumar, Indranil Chatterjee, Timothy Boykin, and Biswajit Ray, “State Dependent Threshold Voltage Shift in Irradiated 64-Layer 3D NAND Memories,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science vol. 72, no. 8, pp. 2498-2505 (2025) 10.1109/TNS.2025.3556805.

  • Mondol Anik Kumar, Md Raquibuzzamman, Matchima Buddhanoy, Timothy Boykin, Biswajit Ray, “Origin of post-irradiation Vt-loss variability in 3D-NAND memory array,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 71, 405 (2024).  

  • Timothy B. Boykin, “The position-momentum commutator as a generalized function: Resolution of the apparent discrepancy between continuous and discrete bases,” Foundations of Physics 53, 56 (2023).  

  • G. Klimeck and T. Boykin,“Tight-Binding Models, Their Applications to Device Modeling, and Deployment to a Global Community,” in Springer Handbook of Semiconductor Devices, ed. M. Rudan, R. Brunetti, and S. Reggiani, 1601-1640, (Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 2023).

  • Timothy B. Boykin, “Digital orbitals:  Connecting the tight-binding and plane-wave approaches through sampled-real-space models,” European Journal of Physics 42, 065501 (2021).  

  • Umeshwarnath Surendranathan, Preeti Kumari, Maryla Wasiolek, Khalid Hattar, Timothy Boykin, and Biswajit Ray, “Gamma-Ray-Induced Error Pattern Analysis for MLC 3-D NAND Flash Memories,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 68, 733 (2021). 

  • Sijay Huang, Timothy B. Boykin, Ravi S. Gorur, and Biswajit Ray, “Electrical Tree Formation in Polymer-Filler Composites,” IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation 26, 1853 (2019).