OTHER ELECTRONICS & NANOTECHNOLOGY
April 2015
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
imec
Awards Ovivo Contract to Provide Ultrapure Water Plant for New Nanoelectronics
R&D Facility
University of Nebraska Wins Grant for Nanotech Research Center
Ovivo Inc. was awarded a contract to provide state of the art
Ultrapure Water (UPW) plant for the new cleanroom facilities of the
world-leading semiconductor research institute imec in Leuven, Belgium. The
system is scheduled for delivery end 2015.
Imec's new cleanroom will be 450mm-compatible allowing imec to
do its research on the most advanced equipment using the wafer standard required
by its semiconductor manufacturing partners.
The fabrication of semiconductor devices requires large
volumes of ultrapure water (UPW) and only the purest possible water is
acceptable for use in semiconductor manufacturing. To achieve the stringent
requirements of the industry, Ovivo offers in-house state-of-the art process
design and equipment such as reverse osmosis units, degasification,
electrodeionisation and Ultrafiltration.
Ovivo has been actively collaborating with design and
construction professionals in developing the roadmap for semiconductor
facilities.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has earned a $9.6 million
grant from the National Science Foundation to support its Materials Research
Science and Engineering Center and its nanotechnology research through 2020.
Through this multidisciplinary center, UNL physicists,
chemists, and engineers collaborate to study nanostructures and materials that
could lead to more energy efficient electronic devices.
UNL’s is one of 21 NSF-funded MRSECs nationwide. UNL
established its MRSEC in 2002 with a $5.4 million NSF grant. In 2008, NSF
awarded UNL $8.1 million to continue the center. UNL was one of 12 universities
nationwide that received grants in the latest round of competition.
“With this award from NSF, we continue to be part of a
prestigious group of institutions recognized for our expertise in materials
research and education through the MRSEC program, which includes Columbia,
Harvard, MIT, the University of Chicago, Penn State and Ohio State,” Chancellor
Harvey Perlman says. “The achievements of our materials researchers are highly
valued by U.S. and international scientific communities and greatly contribute
to UNL’s reputation.”
The center receives a new name with this latest funding —
Polarization and Spin Phenomena in Nanoferroic Structures, or P-SPINS — to
reflect its expanding research focus on nanoferroic materials, which may one day
transform electronics and computing technologies.
“Our MRSEC scientists are doing research at the frontiers of
materials and nanoscience and although this is very basic research, it leads to
advanced technologies and products that affect our everyday lives,” Prem Paul,
vice chancellor for research and economic development, says. “An important part
of the center’s work is developing collaborations with industry and national
laboratories to focus on potential applications.”
The center’s success is based on several major accomplishments
in understanding the properties and performance of nanomaterials, key steps
toward improving computing power and creating advanced technologies, says Evgeny
Tsymbal, George Holmes University Professor of Physics and MRSEC director. These
discoveries have led the center to focus on two key areas: magnetoelectric
materials and functional interfaces, and polarization-enabled electronic
phenomena.
UNL physicist Christian Binek leads the magnetoelectric
materials and functional interfaces research group. It’s based on Binek’s work
with spintronics, which manipulates electron spin, in addition to charge, to
generate power and store digital information.
Traditional magnetic memory devices use an electric current to
reverse the magnetic direction, which is the binary method of storing
information. Binek’s team discovered how to switch magnetization using voltage
instead, which doesn’t generate heat and thus opens the avenue to
energy-efficient computing.
This team now is developing voltage-powered logical and memory
devices.
UNL physicist Alexei Gruverman leads the polarization-enabled
electronic phenomena research group. This research takes advantage of nano-thin
ferroelectric oxide, a material with both positive and negative polarization
directions that, like spintronics, can be read out as a binary code using less
energy than current technology.
The work is driven by Tsymbal’s theoretical predication and
Gruverman’s experimental demonstration of quantum tunneling across nano-thin
ferroelectrics. The phenomenon of quantum tunneling, in which particles, such as
electrons, can pass through a barrier, occurs only at the quantum, or atomic,
level. When voltage is applied, electrons are able to tunnel through the
barrier, creating a current with resistance.
By experimenting with tunnel junctions, in which an ultra-thin
barrier made of ferroelectric oxide is placed between two electrodes, they have
shown that reversing the polarization changes dramatically the resistance
through the tunnel junction. Measuring that resistance would allow devices to
read the binary polarization direction, and thus, the information it contains.
Each of these nanomaterials hold promise for overcoming the
limitations of traditional silicon-based electronics, which engineers say are
fast approaching their functional limits. Harnessing nanomaterials would enable
smaller, more powerful and less expensive computers and other electronics. Other
applications include more energy efficient solar panels and refrigeration.
“Our niche, which I think is very exciting in terms of
fundamental science, is very important from the point of view of applications,”
Tsymbal says. “It’s a focused research area where we’re leading the field.”
The center’s work is highly collaborative with researchers
from diverse disciplines sharing expertise. UNL’s MRSEC includes 18 UNL faculty
from the departments of physics and astronomy, chemistry, electrical
engineering, mechanical and materials engineering, and teaching, learning, and
teacher education. Two other MRSEC affiliates are at North Carolina A&T State
University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UNL MRSEC faculty collaborate with industry, national
laboratories and scientists internationally and will interact closely with UNL’s
Center for Nanoferroic Devices, established in 2013 and funded jointly by a
consortium of industrial companies known as the Nanoelectronics Research
Initiative and the National Institute for Standards and Technology, to develop
device applications.
The latest NSF funding also will support expansion of the
center’s traditionally strong education and outreach programs. UNL physicist
Axel Enders will lead several ongoing and new initiatives, including those
designed to encourage women and minorities into materials science research.
Activities include conferences and mentorship programs with minority-serving
institutions, such as the University of Puerto Rico and North Carolina A&T State
University.
During summer research programs, undergraduates and faculty
from non-research-intensive four-year institutions, as well as high school and
middle school teachers, will continue to tackle research projects alongside the
center's faculty and staff.
McIlvaine Company
Northfield, IL 60093-2743
Tel:
847-784-0012; Fax:
847-784-0061
E-mail:
editor@mcilvainecompany.com
Web site:
www.mcilvainecompany.com