U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Physical Measurement Laboratory /Nanoscale Device Characterization Division

Advanced Electronics Group

The Group seeks to develop the critical metrologies that will be needed in the future to understand the fundamental physics and enable advanced manufacturing of nanoscale devices at the 3 nm node and beyond.

gold nanoparticles
Researchers Explore Energy-saving Catalysts that Operate at Room Temperature
Images of yeast cells and silver dendrites.
New Microwave Imaging Approach Opens a Nanoscale View on Processes in Liquids

We develop new modes of spectrographic imaging or spatial resolved measurements using electrons, photons, electric or magnetic fields, or proximal probes down to the atomic scale in ambient, operating and in vivo environments. We apply Nanoscale Imaging to characterize nanoscale devices and nanostructured materials to study their physics, structure and function.

News and Updates

Projects and Programs

Schematic of a PEEM measurement

Advancing PEEM-based Metrology

Ongoing
With the rise of emergent material systems, nanoscale devices and components, there is a need to assess their electronic properties at similar length scales. Bulk-sensitive measurements provide characteristic information averaged over the sample or device, and these properties may not be uniform
Advancing Power Electronics with Defect Metrology, Key challenges of near market devices of

Advancing Power Electronics with Defect Metrology

Ongoing
Power electronics play a central role in all aspects of electrical energy storage, distribution, conversion, and consumption. Currently, power electronics heavily rely on Si-based insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBT), which have large footprints, are inefficient, and require extensive cooling
Contrast enhancement at the diffraction limit using DUV Fourier ptychography (left) and 3D reconstructed image (right).

DUV/EUV Nanoscopy for Imaging Nanostructures

Ongoing
Novel optical nanoscopy techniques using deep-ultraviolet (DUV) and extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) laser sources are developed to characterize nanostructures with high dimensional sensitivity and low uncertainty for advancing the semiconductor devices manufacturing process. The illumination beam is
Massively parallel wafer-level long-term reliability test system featuring 30 fully functioning mini probe stations each supporting 100 probe pins with all the supporting stress/measure electronics integrated (without cables).

Electrical Characterization of Nanoscale Electron Devices

Ongoing
Over the decades, many measurement methods were developed to meet the needs of advancing electron device/circuit/system technology. As technology continue to advance, new needs continue to surface, either due to old measurements are no longer adequate or due to no established method exists. A case

Publications

Awards

2023 IEEE EDS Leo Esaki Award

2023 IEEE EDS Leo Esaki Award

For recognizing the best paper appearing in a fast turnaround archival publication of the IEEE Electron Devices Society, targeted to the

Press Coverage

AFM tip

Research Bits: Dec. 13

Semiconductor Engineering
Engineers at Caltech and the University of Southampton integrated an electronic and photonic chip for high-speed communication in data centers.

Contacts

Group Leader

General Information