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Nanotechnology

Nanoelectronics

Projects/Programs

Displaying 26 - 42 of 42

Nanocalorimetry

Completed
The global market for semiconductor chips is $270 billion. Growth in this industry is driven by the need to enhance performance by packing more transistors into the same chip area, with a relationship between feature size and time that approximately follows Moore's Law. As the feature size shrinks
(a) Schematic of a near-field scanning microwave microscope (NSMM). (b) NSMM images of a perovskite PV sample, (c) NSMM MoS2 back-gate device, (d) Spatial imaging of excited spin wave modes.

Nanoelectromagnetics

Ongoing
The primary goal of this program is metrology that enables advanced nanoscale device (including electronics, spintronics, and life science) development. Based on current trends in electronics, we are focusing on metrology for two classes of devices: (1) nanoscale devices utilizing and exploring new
A scanning electron micrograph of a QDOGFET device used for photon number-resolving detection.

Nanostructure Fabrication and Metrology

Completed
This project develops semiconductor nanostructures, especially self-assembled quantum dots and photonic crystals, for a variety of applications including single photonics, laser diodes, and quantum optical metrology. It also develops quantum optical metrology based on other sources and detectors
Layout of the Nanotechnology Xccelerator Reticle with 30 unique tiles occupying 41 different slots within the reticle.

The Nanotechnology Xccelerator

Ongoing
The Nanotechnology Xccelerator was announced on September 13, 2022 and was officially accepted for production at Skywater Technology Foundry using the Sky130 technology in Q1 2024. Sky130, which comes in both a conventional and open-source process design kit, is a 5-metal layer process. To
EBIC Current

Neuromorphic Device Measurements

Ongoing
One type of device that is emerging as an attractive artificial synapse is the resistive switch, or memristor. These devices, which usually consist of a thin layer of oxide between two electrodes, have conductivity that depends on their history of applied voltage, and thus have highly nonlinear
micro-focus Brillouin Light scattering spectrometer

Optical and Microwave Spectroscopy of Microelectronic Systems

Ongoing
Collaborations with industry leaders have led to new understanding of magnetic damping in advanced materials and replication of our magnetic metrology tools. We investigate fundamental aspects of spin transfer in materials and structures that offer improved performance in future devices such as
A 3" wafer is seen concentric with the lower plasma electrode.

Precision Materials for Quantum Devices

Ongoing
MBE System Our fabrication system is composed of ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chambers that support the in-vacuum exchange of 75 mm wafers without exposure to air as seen in Figure 1. These chambers are: (1) a deposition chamber with electron gun deposition, UHV compatible sputter guns, in situ shadow
The Daffodil Board

Prototyping Platforms for Emerging Technologies

Ongoing
Emerging technologies aim to overcome traditional memory limitations with higher density, lower power consumption, faster read/write speeds, better endurance, and lower cost [2]. Many new candidate memory elements are analog or stochastic, requiring new testing infrastructure, and the context of
golden aspect ratio illustration

Sensing, Transport, and Simulation

Ongoing
We have recently developed a finite-size scaling approach and special simulation cell aspect ratio—the golden aspect ratio—to enable accurate incorporation of access resistant and bulk diffusion in ionic transport, see the figure. This enables quantitative, and efficient, prediction of ion transport
Fig. 1. Die containing 285 superparamagnetic tunnel junctions.

Spintronics for Neuromorphic Computing

Ongoing
Magnetic tunnel junctions (see Fig. 1) consist of two thin films of ferromagnetic material separated by a few atomic layers of an insulating material. The insulator is so thin that electrons can tunnel quantum mechanically through it. The rate at which the electrons tunnel is affected by the
subnanoscale electron microscopy figure

Sub-nanoscale electron microscopy of complex nanostructures

Ongoing
The properties of advance materials are becoming ever more reliant on the ability to manipulate their chemistry and structure at very fine length scales. For example, the relevant feature sizes in state-of-the-art transistors continue to decrease, even as the complexity of the architectures employed
Fig. 1. Time re-Envisioned: Not a biproduct of computation but the domain in which information is encoded. Leads to different mathematical functions becoming energy efficient primitives.

Temporal Computing

Ongoing
In standard integrated circuits, information that is coded as ones and zeros is implemented by voltages on wires being high or low. The circuits consume energy during transitions between these voltages. Binary numbers have a voltage per bit so there are a lot of transitions each time a number
Schematic of a radial p- n- Junction

Theory and Modeling of Materials for Renewable Energy

Completed
Nanostructured materials offer potential benefits for a range of renewable energy applications that rely critically on interfaces for separating charges, including photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, and electrochemical energy storage. The use of nanostructures allows scientists and engineers to
A current (white arrow) flowing through a tantalum film generates a current of spins (dark blue arrows) that impinges on the ferromagnetic cobalt iron boron layer and causes the magnetization (gold arrow) to charge directions (light blue arrow).

Theory of Spin-Orbit Torque

Completed
A ferromagnetic material such as iron acquires its magnetization because the magnetic orientation of its constituent atoms all line up in the same way. Because individual electrons also have an intrinsic magnetic moment – which is often referred to as the electron “spin” - they can interact with
Topological Insulators SbTe

Topological Insulators

Ongoing
Dichalcogenide-Based Topological Insulators A family of TI materials can by synthesized by combining binary compounds of Bismuth (Bi) or Antimony (Sb) with Selenium (Se) and Tellurium (Te) to form Bi 2Se 3, Bi 2Te 3, and Sb 2Te 3 compounds. In these material compounds, the spin of the electron has a
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