Electronics and Nanotechnology

New Quantum State Discovered in Trimer-Honeycomb Material

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 22:56:55 +0000

New Quantum State Discovered in Trimer-Honeycomb Material admin Thu, 02/23/2023 - 17:56

A group of physicists, including two Georgia Tech researchers, have discovered a new quantum state. The study, published in the journal Nature, uncovered novel looping currents flowing along the edges of octahedral cells in a crystal of Mn3Si2Te6, which allowed for a billion percent increase in the material’s electric conductivity. The findings could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices and superconductors.

The team consisted of Georgia Tech theoretical physicists Sami Hakani and Itamar Kimchi, along with experimental physicists Feng Ye (Oak Ridge National Lab), Lance DeLong (University of Kentucky), and, from the University of Colorado at Boulder: Gang Cao, Yifei Ni, Yu Zhang, and Hengdi Zhao. The group was drawn to the research after their previous study investigated the same material.

“Because this material did not fit any preexisting models, we had to develop new ideas to understand it,” said Georgia Tech graduate student Hakani, who played a key role in developing the theory. “These new ideas will help us study related materials that could be used for next-generation magnetic field devices.”

An Exception to the Rule

The physicists first became interested in the Mn3Si2Te6 material due to its unique electrical properties — in particular, a property called colossal magnetoresistance, an extreme enhancement in a material’s electrical conductivity when a magnetic field is applied.

In most materials, applying a magnetic field does not change that material’s conductivity. However, in another class of materials, applying a magnetic field does change conductivity; this is called magnetoresistance, and it can scale to “giant” and “colossal” changes in conductivity. In instances of colossal magnetoresistance, a material can change from behaving like an insulator (like Styrofoam) to being as conductive as a metal wire.

This change is not altogether unusual. Materials displaying giant magnetoresistance are not uncommon and are often used in computers; however, in all of these known materials, the material does not change its behavior in a way that significantly depends on the direction of the applied magnetic field. This new trimer-honeycomb material does.

“The phenomenon defies all existing theoretical models and experimental precedents,” said Kimchi, theoretical physicist and assistant professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech. And that’s where he and Hakani come in.

Uncovering Looping Currents

“As theoretical physicists, we develop new kinds of mathematical models,” said Kimchi. “When it’s qualitatively difficult to understand how anything can make sense in experimental data — when there’s something qualitatively shocking — we try to come up with that basic picture.”

Using the information uncovered by the experimental physicists, Hakani and Kimchi set out to understand why the extreme change in conductivity only happens when the magnetic field is applied perpendicularly to the honeycomb-like surface of the material.

“Our idea smelled promising, but, unfortunately, we quickly realized that currents between the magnetic manganese ions would be forbidden by symmetry, which was discouraging,” said Kimchi. “However, Sami then did the symmetry analysis for the octahedrally arranged tellurium ions, and, for them, currents were symmetry-allowed and could work out!”

Viewed from above, the material looks like a series of two-dimensional honeycombs. From the side, however, the material is composed of “sheets,” like a layer cake. Within each “sheet” of honeycomb, electrons can move in circular paths around each octahedral cell. These looping, circular-moving currents within the material are responsible for the material’s unique behavior.

On its own, without a magnetic field present, electrons move both counterclockwise and clockwise around the honeycomb “cells,” like cars going in both directions around a roundabout. Just like in uncontrolled traffic, “traffic jams” make it difficult for electrons to move quickly throughout the material. Without a way to streamline traffic, the material acts more like an insulator.

However, if a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the honeycomb-like surface, a “flow of traffic” is established, and electrons navigate the loops more quickly. The material then acts as a conductor, showing a seven-magnitude increase in conductivity — equivalent to an increase of a billion percent.

A New Paradigm

The transformation from insulator to conductor can also be driven by applying electrical currents in the material, but in that case, it doesn’t happen instantaneously. It can take seconds or even minutes for the material to switch from insulator to conductor.

The team believes that this tunability and slower type of switching, coupled with the material’s sensitivity to currents, could lead to new applications and discoveries in current-controlled quantum devices, a field of devices that range from sensors to computers to secure communication.

The next step? Working to better understand the newly discovered quantum state, and finding other materials where the quantum state might exist.

“Looking forward, we hope to understand not only what makes this material special, but also which microscopic ingredients are needed for related materials to become useful quantum technologies in our future,” said Hakani.

Subtitle

The transformation allows for a billion percent increase in the material’s conductivity and could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices.

Summary sentence

The transformation allows for a billion percent increase in the material’s conductivity and could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices.

Summary

A group of physicists, including two Georgia Tech researchers, have discovered a new quantum state in trimer-honeycomb material. The transformation allows for a billion percent increase in the material’s conductivity and could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices. The discovery builds on a previous study that first investigated the material, also known as Mn3Si2Te6, for its unusual and unique qualities.

Dateline

Thu, 02/23/2023 - 12:00

jess@cos.gatech.edu

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By: Selena Langner
Writer, College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

Media Contact: Jess Hunt-Ralston
Director of Communications, College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

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Thu, 02/23/2023 - 17:17

Mark Prausnitz Elected to National Academy of Engineering

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 19:52:53 +0000

Mark Prausnitz Elected to National Academy of Engineering admin Thu, 02/09/2023 - 14:52

Professor and entrepreneur Mark Prausnitz has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), joining a membership that includes the nation’s most distinguished engineers. He is Georgia Tech’s 46th NAE member.

Prausnitz is the J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) and director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Drug Design, Development and Delivery. He’s also the only Georgia Tech faculty member recognized as both a Regents’ Professor and Regents’ Entrepreneur, the highest academic titles awarded by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents. He joins 105 new NAE members in the 2023 class along with 18 new international members.

Read the full story on the College of Engineering website.

Summary sentence

The honor is one of the highest professional distinctions for engineers

Summary

The honor is one of the highest professional distinctions for engineers

Dateline

Tue, 02/07/2023 - 12:00

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Jason Maderer
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Thu, 02/09/2023 - 14:18

Research Reveals Thermal Instability of Solar Cells but Offers a Bright Path Forward

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 16:52:52 +0000

Research Reveals Thermal Instability of Solar Cells but Offers a Bright Path Forward admin Thu, 02/09/2023 - 11:52

A new type of solar technology has seemed promising in recent years. Halide perovskite solar cells are both high performing and low cost for producing electrical energy – two necessary ingredients for any successful solar technology of the future. But new solar cell materials should also match the stability of silicon-based solar cells, which boast more than 25 years of reliability.

In newly published research, a team led by Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, assistant professor in the School of Materials Sciences and Engineering at Georgia Tech, shows that halide perovskite solar cells are less stable than previously thought. Their work reveals the thermal instability that happens within the cells’ interface layers, but also offers a path forward towards reliability and efficiency for halide perovskite solar technology. Their research, published as the cover story for the journal Advanced Materials in December 2022, has immediate implications for both academics and industry professionals working with perovskites in photovoltaics, a field concerned with electric currents generated by sunlight.

Lead halide perovskite solar cells promise superior conversion of sunlight into electrical power. Currently, the most common strategy for coaxing high conversion efficiency out of these cells is to treat their surfaces with large positively charged ions known as cations.

These cations are too big to fit into the perovskite atomic-scale lattice, and, upon landing on the perovskite crystal, change the material’s structure at the interface where they are deposited. The resulting atomic-scale defects limit the efficacy of current extraction from the solar cell. Despite awareness of these structural changes, research on whether the cations are stable after deposition is limited, leaving a gap in understanding of a process that could impact the long-term viability of halide perovskite solar cells.

“Our concern was that during long periods of solar cell operation the reconstruction of the interfaces would continue,” said Correa-Baena. “So, we sought to understand and demonstrate how this process happens over time.”

To carry out the experiment, the team created a sample solar device using typical perovskite films. The device features eight independent solar cells, which enables the researchers to experiment and generate data based on each cell’s performance. They investigated how the cells would perform, both with and without the cation surface treatment, and studied the cation-modified interfaces of each cell before and after prolonged thermal stress using synchrotron-based X-ray characterization techniques.

First, the researchers exposed the pre-treated samples to 100 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes, and then measured their changes in chemical composition using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. They also used another type of X-ray technology to investigate precisely what type of crystal structures form on the film’s surface. Combining the information from the two tools, the researchers could visualize how the cations diffuse into the lattice and how the interface structure changes when exposed to heat.

Next, to understand how the cation-induced structural changes impact solar cell performance, the researchers employed excitation correlation spectroscopy in collaboration with Carlos Silva, professor of physics and chemistry at Georgia Tech. The technique exposes the solar cell samples to very fast pulses of light and detects the intensity of light emitted from the film after each pulse to understand how energy from light is lost. The measurements allow the researchers to understand what kinds of surface defects are detrimental to performance.

Finally, the team correlated the changes in structure and optoelectronic properties with the differences in the solar cells’ efficiencies. They also studied the changes induced by high temperatures in two of the most used cations and observed the differences in dynamics at their interfaces.

“Our work revealed that there is concerning instability introduced by treatment with certain cations,” said Carlo Perini, a research scientist in Correa-Baena’s lab and the first author of the paper. “But the good news is that, with proper engineering of the interface layer, we will see enhanced stability of this technology in the future.”

The researchers learned that the surfaces of metal halide perovskite films treated with organic cations keep evolving in structure and composition under thermal stress. They saw that the resulting atomic-scale changes at the interface can cause a meaningful loss in power conversion efficiency in solar cells. In addition, they found that the speed of these changes depends on the type of cations used, suggesting that stable interfaces might be within reach with adequate engineering of the molecules.

“We hope this work will compel researchers to test these interfaces at high temperatures and seek solutions to the problem of instability,” Correa-Baena said. “This work should point scientists in the right direction, to an area where they can focus in order to build more efficient and stable solar technologies.”

CITATION: Perini, C. A. R., Rojas-Gatjens, E., Ravello, M., Castro-Mendez, A., Hidalgo, J., An, Y., Kim, S., Lai, B., Li, R., Silva-Acuña, C., Correa-Baena, J.-P., Interface Reconstruction from Ruddlesden–Popper Structures Impacts Stability in Lead Halide Perovskite Solar Cells. Adv. Mater. 2022, 34, 2204726.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202204726

Summary sentence

Their work reveals what goes wrong within the cells’ interface layers.

Summary

Their work reveals what goes wrong within the cells’ interface layers.

Dateline

Thu, 02/09/2023 - 12:00

catherine.barzler@gatech.edu

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Catherine Barzler, Senior Research Writer/Editor

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Atlanta, GA

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Thu, 02/09/2023 - 11:05

Lim, Milor, Qureshi Elevated to IEEE Fellows

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 22:48:27 +0000

Lim, Milor, Qureshi Elevated to IEEE Fellows admin Fri, 01/27/2023 - 17:48

Three Georgia Tech faculty members have been elevated to fellow status in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology. They are Sung Kyu Lim and Linda Milor, professors in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and Moinuddin K. Qureshi, professor in the School of Computer Science with an adjunct appointment in ECE.

IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious grade elevation. Fellow is the highest grade of membership and conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors. It is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.

“It's a very special honor to be named an IEEE Fellow because it means your peers have recognized your contribution's significance and impact,” said Professor and School Chair Arijit Raychowdhury, who became an IEEE Fellow in 2022. “It’s an honor to work alongside Sung Kyu, Linda, and Moinuddin. They have demonstrated to the rest of the world that our faculty and students are involved in cutting-edge, innovative research.”

About this year’s Georgia Tech IEEE Fellows:

Sung Kyu Lim
Lim, who currently holds the Motorola Solutions Foundation Professor title in ECE, is being recognized “for contributions to electronic design automation and tradeoff for 3-dimensional integrated circuits (ICs).” He is the first Georgia Tech ECE researcher to be recruited and serve as a DARPA program manager while teaching at Georgia Tech, currently managing programs related to 3D ICs at the Microsystems Technology Office.

Lim’s research focus is on architecture, design, and electronic design automation (EDA) for 2.5D and 3D integrated circuits. He has published more than 400 papers on the topic and received the 2022 Best Paper Award from the IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility and the IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems.
Linda Milor
Milor is being recognized “for contributions to testing of analog circuits and bridging the design-manufacturing gap for integrated circuits (ICs).” Her research on yield and test of semiconductor ICs has been published in over 200 publications, nine papers have over 50 citations in google scholar, and eight papers have received “Best Paper” awards, including a best paper for the IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Prior to her career in academia, Milor served as vice president of process technology and product engineering at eSilicon Corporation and as a product engineering manager at AMD. She is a frequent speaker at conferences, including keynote addresses and presentations on women in STEM in industry and academia.
Moinuddin K. Qureshi
Qureshi is being recognized “for contributions to scalable memory systems.” His research interests include computer architecture, hardware security, and quantum computing. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he was a research scientist at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center where he developed the caching algorithms for Power 7 Systems.

He is a Hall-of-Fame member of the three major computer architecture conferences: the International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), the International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO), and the International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA). He recently received the Maurice Wilkes Award for contributions to high-performance memory systems from the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture (SIGARCH).

The total number of fellows selected by IEEE in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one percent of the total voting IEEE membership. A complete list of the Class of 2023 fellows is available on the IEEE site.

Summary sentence

IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments.

Summary

IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments.

Dateline

Thu, 01/26/2023 - 12:00

dwatson@ece.gatech.edu

Contact

Dan Watson
dwatson@ece.gatech.edu

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IEEE Fellow Program

Sung Kyu Lim

Moinuddin K. Qureshi

Linda Milor

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665175

Source updated

Fri, 01/27/2023 - 15:27

$2.3B Qcells Solar Power Investment Holds Major Potential for Georgia

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 22:47:05 +0000

$2.3B Qcells Solar Power Investment Holds Major Potential for Georgia admin Mon, 01/23/2023 - 17:47

The state of Georgia is at the epicenter of what may be the largest investment in clean energy manufacturing in U.S. history, and Georgia Tech is poised to play a key role in an investment that is slated to create thousands of jobs and boost solar power infrastructure in our state and beyond.

Qcells, a solar power company, plans to build a $2.3 billion manufacturing complex just north of Atlanta in Cartersville to not only make state-of-the-art components for solar panels, but also to build complete panels used in a variety of settings, from houses to large-scale commercial and industrial solar arrays.

Georgia Tech is home to some of the world’s leading researchers and experts in photovoltaic materials and solar energy. Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, assistant professor and Goizueta Junior Faculty Rotating Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and his research group have been blazing trails on the hunt for new materials that can be used in solar energy conversion.

“The most important part of this investment in U.S. manufacturing is the fact that Qcells is investing in the development of ingot and wafer production,” Correa-Baena said. Currently, silicon needs to be processed to form solar cells used to harvest energy. Ingots are the first step in the manufacturing process of refining raw materials into wafers. The wafers become the base for completed solar panels.

Over the past decade, most ingot and wafer production has been happening outside of the U.S. “With this investment, we guarantee that we can have full control of the supply chain by manufacturing all aspects of the solar panels domestically,” said Correa-Baena. Ultimately, the goal is to make solar energy more affordable for American consumers and create high-paying jobs for Georgians.

“It is exciting to see that silicon manufacturing is restarting in the U.S. and that Georgia is at the forefront of it,” said Ajeet Rohatgi, Regents’ Professor and John H. Weitnauer Jr. Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Rohatgi is one of the world’s leading researchers in photovoltaics – the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials like silicon. He is the founding director of the first university-based and Department of Energy-funded Center of Excellence for Photovoltaics Research and Education. The center’s work focuses on finding and improving the materials used to make solar cells while also improving their efficiency.

Qcells built its first plant near Dalton, Georgia, in 2019. By 2022, the facility had become the largest producer of solar panels in the western hemisphere. Rohatgi says representatives from Qcells have visited his research facilities on campus, and he and his team have visited the company’s Dalton facility as well.

“As demand for clean energy continues to grow nationally, we’re ready to put thousands of people to work creating fully American made and sustainable solar solutions, from raw material to finished panels,” said Justin Lee, CEO of Qcells. “We are committed to working with our customers as well as national and Georgia leaders to bring completely clean energy to millions of people across the country.”

Tim Lieuwen, executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute, Regents' Professor, and David S. Lewis Jr. Chair said, “Georgia Tech is a key leader in most of the core technologies associated with clean energy industries, has nationally distinctive researchers and facilities, and educates a lot of undergraduate and graduate students in these areas.”

That is why Tech has the potential to be a valuable partner in this project. “We are in a unique space where we can interface with Qcells to help them improve materials processing and explore new materials, but also aid in their manufacturing processes by introducing artificial intelligence to optimize processes and increase their productivity,” said Correa-Baena.

The announcement is not just significant for Georgia Tech, but for the state of Georgia as well. In Lieuwen’s view, Georgia is emerging as a center of clean energy manufacturing and technology, in no small part thanks to the Institute’s partnerships, research, and workforce development efforts. He says advancements in electric vehicles, batteries, and hydrogen power are all picking up steam in our state. “Having these types of companies in areas where Georgia Tech is focusing research and development efforts is good for the Institute and the state.”

The Qcells expansion is likely just the tip of the iceberg, as leading researchers from across campus identify projects like these where Tech ingenuity and innovation can make a difference.

“I’m enthusiastic about this expansion of solar cell manufacturing in Georgia because it builds on other clean energy, electrification, and energy storage industries already existing or planned for our state,” said Julia Kubanek, professor and vice president for Interdisciplinary Research. “The Southeast is increasingly becoming known as a hub for cleantech innovation, and Georgia Tech is proud to be a key contributor to this ecosystem.”

Production at the new Qcells solar plant is expected to start in 2024.

Summary sentence

Georgia Tech experts are at the forefront of technology and research that could revamp clean energy infrastructure in our state.

Summary

Georgia Tech experts are at the forefront of technology and research that could revamp clean energy infrastructure in our state.

Dateline

Mon, 01/23/2023 - 12:00

snorris@gatech.edu

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Steven Norris
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Georgia Institute of Technology

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Mon, 01/23/2023 - 17:27

Georgia Tech Receives $65 Million Grant from Semiconductor Research Corporation for JUMP 2.0 Centers

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 13:40:31 +0000

Georgia Tech Receives $65 Million Grant from Semiconductor Research Corporation for JUMP 2.0 Centers admin Fri, 01/06/2023 - 08:40

Intelligent machines and AI characters that can interact seamlessly and intimately with human beings will have wide-ranging effects on society – in healthcare, search and rescue, business and defense, and even recreation. The technology is not very far off, and a massive national effort, led in part by Georgia Tech researchers, is charting the course.

Last year, the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a new program to improve the nation’s information and technology infrastructure. With a global chip shortage, supply chain issues, and other challenges in play, a group of Georgia Tech faculty members jumped at the opportunity to participate.

Their landing was perfect. Two new research centers, representing an investment of about $65.7 million, have been awarded to Georgia Tech through the SRC-administrated Joint University Microelectronics Program 2.0, or JUMP 2.0.

JUMP 2.0 will support the work of dozens of inter-disciplinary researchers from multiple universities, tackling the technological issues of an increasingly connected world. The goal is to improve the nation’s performance, efficiency, and capabilities for both commercial and military applications.

“Georgia Tech won two of the seven centers, which is not only fantastic, but also speaks highly about the breadth and depth of our research enterprise,” said Professor Arijit Raychowdhury, the Steve W. Chaddick Chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech and will direct one of the new centers.

The JUMP 2.0 announcement represents the latest round of significant support advancing AI-related research at Georgia Tech. Last July, Tech received two National Science Foundation Artificial Intelligence Research awards totaling $40 million. In September, the U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded Georgia Tech $65 million to support a statewide initiative combining AI and manufacturing innovations with workforce and outreach programs.

A New Collaborative Chapter

Launching in 2023, JUMP 2.0 is the next chapter of an SRC-led alliance that formed in 2018 – the original JUMP, with its broad focus on nano-electronic computing.

JUMP 2.0 is a collaboration between SRC industrial participants (IBM, Intel, Raytheon, TSMC and Samsung, to name a few) and the Department of Defense. The program asked researchers from U.S. universities to solicit proposals for collaborative, multidisciplinary, multi-institute research in seven theme areas: cognition; communications and connectivity; intelligent sensing to action; systems and architectures for distributed computing; intelligent memory and storage; advanced monolithic and heterogenous integration; and high-performance energy efficient devices.

The two new research centers Georgia Tech, both headquartered within the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) are:

• CoCoSys: Center for the Co-Design of Cognitive Systems (theme area: cognition), under the direction of Raychowdhury;

• CogniSense: Center on Cognitive Multispectral Sensors (theme area: intelligent sensing to action), under the direction of Saibal Mukhopadhyay, Joseph M. Pettit Professor in ECE.

Semiconductors, or microchips, are basically tiny silicon slices packed with millions of transistors that control electron activity. These chips enable all our electronic devices to work. So, a shortage of semiconductors – or a shortcoming in terms of quality and efficiency – spells trouble for sectors and industries that depend on these little bits of hardware, for example: computing, healthcare, telecommunication, security, transportation, or manufacturing.

Building a Digital Human

The goals for the JUMP 2.0 centers are lofty and wide-ranging, addressing current and future needs.

“In some sense, the question we’re addressing is, ‘how do you build a perfect digital human,’” Raychowdhury said of the Team CoCoSys mission. “We want to learn how to build systems which are aware – capable of interacting as human agents with us. For example, we want AI that can listen to a conversation between two human beings and learn from that and seamlessly merge into society.”

Current AI, Raychowdhury said, may be able to perform relatively narrow tasks better than a human, but one area that it is much less effective is human-intelligent machine collaboration. This concept has been increasingly researched in recent years as automated virtual assistants and the metaverse have entered the mainstream. As cognitive systems research moves toward creation of a digital human, it will have far-reaching impact in industry and healthcare testing, disaster relief, fully autonomous and collaborative systems, immersive training and gaming experiences, and more.

“Continuous learning through interactions with humans is missing,” Raychowdhury said. “The next generation of AI needs to comprehend nuances of human interaction, explain, and interpret visual cues and language, and be able to do that in real-time with high energy-efficiency. That’s what we want to address. That’s the meta goal of this center.”

Three other Georgia Tech faculty researchers, all from ECE, are part of Team CoCoSys: Larry Heck, Azad Naeemi, and Tushar Krishna.

“This is a diverse team in all possible ways with expertise across the board,” Raychowdhury said.

Sensors with a Brain

The ability to sense is fundamental and probably the most critical component for building an intelligent machine. “It is fundamental to nature,” said Mukhopadhyay. “We have eyes, ears, a nose, and skin to sense the environment around us.”

The CogniSense Center research team wants to develop sensors that can effectively “perceive” everything around them and, like humans, efficiently attend to the information that really matters.

Today’s electronics sensors samples everything they “see” and generate abundance of digital data; sometime way too much for a machine store, process, and make sense. The CogniSense center’s goal is to change this paradigm by learning from biology.

“In human, sensors and the brain work together to control attention and extract only important information from everything happening around us,” said Mukhopadhyay. “Can we make electronic sensors that behave like that – cognizant and energy efficient?”

The team he’s assembled is made up of 20 researchers from 12 different institutions, including two other ECE faculty members: Justin Romberg (associate chair for research in ECE) and Muhannad Bakir (interim director of the Georgia Tech 3D Systems Packing Research Center).

“We have a diverse team with expertise in radars, optics, integrated circuits, packaging, signal processing, and artificial intelligence to build these new sensors with a brain,” said Mukhopadhyay.

Beyond Campus

Georgia Tech researchers will play critical roles in three other centers based at other universities around the country:

• PRISM: Center for Processing with Intelligent Storage and Memory

• ACE: Evolvable Computing for Next-Generation Distributed Computer Systems.

• CHIMES: Center for Heterogenous Integration of Microelectronic Systems

CHIMES in particular will feature a large, multi-disciplinary Georgia Tech influence including ECE’s Suman Datta, Callie Hao, and Shimeng Yu; George Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering’s Suresh Sitaraman and Satish Kumar; and the center’s associate director, Bakir (doubling up on his JUMP 2.0 responsibilities as a member of both CogniSense and CHIMES).

“We are delighted in the critical and fundamental role Georgia Tech plays within CHIMES,” said Bakir. “In each of the four research themes that constitute this center, Georgia Tech faculty play a key role. This not only reflects our world class faculty, students, and staff, but also our world-class fabrication, assembly and bonding, and advanced system level prototyping facilities that will be critical in enabling next generation 3D heterogeneous and 3D monolithic circuits and systems.”

Tech's multidisciplinary research activities related to CHIMES are supported by the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN). Georgia Tech's nanotechnology core facilities, namely the IEN Micro/Nanofabrication Facility and Materials Characterization Facility, support CHIMES and other JUMP 2.0 research activities.

Establishing all of these new semiconductor research centers is the result of impeccable timing, according to Raychowdhury, who pointed out that ECE broke into the top two in national rankings by U.S. News and World Report rankings for the first time in 2022, not long after President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act, which provides about $280 billion in new funding to boost U.S. research and manufacturing of semiconductors.

“These research centers are part of a confluence of things that are happening simultaneously across the U.S.,” he said. “And they have implications for Georgia Tech, national security, and the independence of our national supply chain as a whole.”

Summary sentence

Two new research centers, representing an investment of about $65.7 million, have been awarded to Georgia Tech through the SRC-administrated Joint University Microelectronics Program 2.0, or JUMP 2.0.

Summary

Dateline

Thu, 01/05/2023 - 12:00

jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu

Contact

Writer: Jerry Grillo

Location

Atlanta, GA

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Keywords

Semiconductors

JUMP 2.0

intelligent machines

digital human

darpa

microchips

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Electronics and Nanotechnology

Mercury ID

664392

Source updated

Fri, 01/06/2023 - 07:39

At the Edge of Graphene-Based Electronics

admin — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 19:29:38 +0000

At the Edge of Graphene-Based Electronics admin Wed, 12/21/2022 - 14:29

A pressing quest in the field of nanoelectronics is the search for a material that could replace silicon. Graphene has seemed promising for decades. But its potential faltered along the way, due to damaging processing methods and the lack of a new electronics paradigm to embrace it. With silicon nearly maxed out in its ability to accommodate faster computing, the next big nanoelectronics platform is needed now more than ever.

Walter de Heer, Regents’ Professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has taken a critical step forward in making the case for a successor to silicon. De Heer and his collaborators developed a new nanoelectronics platform based on graphene — a single sheet of carbon atoms. The technology is compatible with conventional microelectronics manufacturing, a necessity for any viable alternative to silicon. In the course of their research, published in Nature Communications, the team may have also discovered a new quasiparticle. Their discovery could lead to manufacturing smaller, faster, more efficient, and more sustainable computer chips, and has potential implications for quantum and high-performance computing.

“Graphene’s power lies in its flat, two-dimensional structure that is held together by the strongest chemical bonds known,” de Heer said. “It was clear from the beginning that graphene can be miniaturized to a far greater extent than silicon — enabling much smaller devices, while operating at higher speeds and producing much less heat. This means that, in principle, more devices can be packed on a single chip of graphene than with silicon.”

In 2001, de Heer proposed an alternative form of electronics based on epitaxial graphene, or epigraphene — a layer of graphene that was found to spontaneously form on top of silicon carbide crystal, a semiconductor used in high power electronics. At the time, the researchers found that electric currents flow without resistance along epigraphene’s edges, and that graphene devices could be seamlessly interconnected without metal wires. This combination allows for a form of electronics that relies on the unique light-like properties of graphene electrons.

“Quantum interference has been observed in carbon nanotubes at low temperatures, and we expect to see similar effects in epigraphene ribbons and networks,” de Heer said. “This important feature of graphene is not possible with silicon.”

Building the Platform

To create the new nanoelectronics platform, the researchers created a modified form of epigraphene on a silicon carbide crystal substrate. In collaboration with researchers at the Tianjin International Center for Nanoparticles and Nanosystems at the University of Tianjin, China, they produced unique silicon carbide chips from electronics-grade silicon carbide crystals. The graphene itself was grown at de Heer’s laboratory at Georgia Tech using patented furnaces.

The researchers used electron beam lithography, a method commonly used in microelectronics, to carve the graphene nanostructures and weld their edges to the silicon carbide chips. This process mechanically stabilizes and seals the graphene’s edges, which would otherwise react with oxygen and other gases that might interfere with the motion of the charges along the edge.

Finally, to measure the electronic properties of their graphene platform, the team used a cryogenic apparatus that allows them to record its properties from a near-zero temperature to room temperature.

Observing the Edge State

The electric charges the team observed in the graphene edge state were similar to photons in an optical fiber that can travel over large distances without scattering. They found that the charges traveled for tens of thousands of nanometers along the edge before scattering. Graphene electrons in previous technologies could only travel about 10 nanometers before bumping into small imperfections and scattering in different directions.

“What's special about the electric charges in the edges is that they stay on the edge and keep on going at the same speed, even if the edges are not perfectly straight," said Claire Berger, physics professor at Georgia Tech and director of research at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Grenoble, France.

In metals, electric currents are carried by negatively charged electrons. But contrary to the researchers’ expectations, their measurements suggested that the edge currents were not carried by electrons or by holes (a term for positive quasiparticles indicating the absence of an electron). Rather, the currents were carried by a highly unusual quasiparticle that has no charge and no energy, and yet moves without resistance. The components of the hybrid quasiparticle were observed to travel on opposite sides of the graphene’s edges, despite being a single object.

The unique properties indicate that the quasiparticle might be one that physicists have been hoping to exploit for decades — the elusive Majorana fermion predicted by Italian theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana in 1937.

“Developing electronics using this new quasiparticle in seamlessly interconnected graphene networks is game changing,” de Heer said.

It will likely be another five to 10 years before we have the first graphene-based electronics, according to de Heer. But thanks to the team’s new epitaxial graphene platform, technology is closer than ever to crowning graphene as a successor to silicon.

Citation: Prudkovskiy, V.S., Hu, Y., Zhang, K. et al. An epitaxial graphene platform for zero-energy edge state nanoelectronics. Nat Commun 13, 7814 (2022).

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34369-4

Writer: Catherine Barzler

Photography: Jess Hunt-Ralston

The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is one of the top public research universities in the U.S., developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its more than 46,000 students, representing 50 states and more than 150 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society.

Summary sentence

The researchers developed a new nanoelectronics platform based on graphene - a single sheet of carbon atoms.

Summary

Regents’ Professor Walter de Heer has taken a critical step in the case for a successor to silicon, working with collaborators to develop a new nanoelectronics platform based on graphene — a single sheet of carbon atoms. The technology is compatible with conventional microelectronics manufacturing, and the new research, published in Nature Communications, shows the team may have also discovered a new quasiparticle.

Dateline

Wed, 12/21/2022 - 12:00

catherine.barzler@gatech.edu

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Catherine Barzler, Senior Research Writer/Editor

Photos and Media: Jess Hunt-Ralston, College of Sciences

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Atlanta, GA

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664032

Source updated

Wed, 12/21/2022 - 13:27

Faculty Honored as National Academy of Inventors Fellows

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 16:23:48 +0000

Faculty Honored as National Academy of Inventors Fellows admin Fri, 12/09/2022 - 11:23

Three faculty from Georgia Tech have been chosen as 2022 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors.

The new class of fellows includes Adegboyega "Yomi" Oyelere of the College of Sciences, along with Madhavan Swaminathan and Zhong Lin Wang of the College of Engineering.

They are among approximately 150 honorees from research universities and governmental and non-profit institutions around the world. They were chosen by the NAI for demonstrating “a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.”

Oyelere is a professor in the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry. His research spans bioorganic chemistry, biochemistry, and drug design with interrelated work across RNA-small molecule interaction, targeted histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition, and design and synthesis of novel bioconjugates for molecular delivery applications.

Oyelere's lab has worked to develop a therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment to inhibit enzymes called histone deacetylases, which play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. He has also worked on the design of histone deacetylase inhibitors that can be taken up by the hormones expressed on the surface of hormone-positive breast cancer cells to stop the cells from dividing. In 2018, he received Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Undergraduate Mentor Senior Faculty Award.

Swaminathan is the John Pippin Chair in Microsystems Packaging & Electromagnetics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and has a joint appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). He directs the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center at Georgia Tech. He is an internationally recognized researcher in electronics packaging, an area that is expected to fuel the semiconductor industry over the next decade.

Swaminathan holds 31 patents and is the founder and co-founder of two start-up companies (E-System Design and Jacket Micro Devices).

Wang is the Regents’ Professor and Hightower Chair Emeritus in MSE. His discovery and breakthroughs in developing nanogenerators established the principle and technological roadmap for harvesting mechanical energy from environment and biological systems for powering mobile sensors.

Wang’s work also pioneered the field of self-powered sensors, and he coined piezotronics and piezo-phototronics for the third-generation semiconductors. Wang holds 70 U.S. and foreign patents.

Georgia Tech now has 16 NAI Fellows. The new cohort will be inducted at the NAI Fellows Induction Ceremony in July.

Summary sentence

Three faculty from Georgia Tech have been chosen as 2022 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors.

Summary

Three faculty from Georgia Tech have been chosen as 2022 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors: Adegboyega "Yomi" Oyelere of the College of Sciences, along with Madhavan Swaminathan and Zhong Lin Wang of the College of Engineering.

Dateline

Thu, 12/08/2022 - 12:00

jess@cos.gatech.edu

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Jason Maderer

Jess Hunt-Ralston

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School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

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Bioengineering and Bioscience

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663752

Source updated

Fri, 12/09/2022 - 11:03

Going Back to Basics Yields a Printable, Transparent Plastic That’s Highly Conductive

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 19:21:14 +0000

Going Back to Basics Yields a Printable, Transparent Plastic That’s Highly Conductive admin Thu, 12/01/2022 - 14:21

It was a simple idea — maybe even too simple to work.

Research scientist James Ponder and a team of Georgia Tech chemists and engineers thought they could design a transparent polymer film that would conduct electricity as effectively as other commonly used materials, while also being flexible and easy to use at an industrial scale.

They’d do it by simply removing the nonconductive material from their conductive element. Sounds logical, right?

The resulting process could yield new kinds of flexible, transparent electronic devices — things like wearable biosensors, organic photovoltaic cells, and virtual or augmented reality displays and glasses.

“We had this initial idea that we have a conductive element that we're covering with a nonconductive material, so what if we just get rid of that,” said Ponder, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at Georgia Tech and returned as a research scientist in mechanical engineering. “It's a simple idea, and there were so many points where it could have failed for different reasons. But it does work, and it works better than we expected.”

Summary sentence

Chemists and engineers collaborate on process that washes away nonconductive side chains from a robust polymer backbone to create a powerful conductive plastic.

Summary

Chemists and engineers collaborate on process that washes away nonconductive side chains from a robust polymer backbone to create a powerful conductive plastic.

Dateline

Thu, 12/01/2022 - 12:00

jstewart@gatech.edu

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Joshua Stewart
College of Engineering

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Atlanta, GA

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conducting polymer

conductive

transparent conductors

PEDOT

James Ponder

john reynolds

shannon yee

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

School of Materials Science and Engineering

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Thu, 12/01/2022 - 11:35

Cleanroom User Spotlight: Mason A. Chilmonczyk

bwaye3 — Thu, 26 May 2022 18:12:20 +0000

Cleanroom User Spotlight: Mason A. Chilmonczyk bwaye3 Thu, 05/26/2022 - 14:12

Mason A. Chilmonczyk is the CEO and Co-founder of Andson Biotech, a startup that develops new sensors to discover the next groundbreaking cell and gene therapies. In the following Q&A, Chilmonczyk briefly discusses his work in the IEN cleanroom and gives advice to current and future users.

How long have you been using the IEN cleanroom?

I began using the IEN cleanroom eight years ago when I started my Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech and I am still using it today.

What tools have/do you use when you are in the cleanroom?

What is/has been your favorite project you have worked on in the IEN cleanroom?

My Ph.D. project, “The Dynamic Sampling Platform for Real-time Bioreactor Monitoring,” has been the most satisfying project I have worked on in the IEN cleanroom. I collaborated with my advisor, Mechanical Engineering Professor Andrei Fedorov, and we utilized the Nanoscribe to make micro-3d printed parts. This allowed me to take interesting SEM images using the Field Emissions Scanning Electron Microscopes. My Ph.D. project was probably the most satisfying to "complete," but I am still working on it to this day.

At the core of my work was a microfluidic mass exchanger that I built in the IEN cleanrooms at Georgia Tech. As a result of this project, Professor Fedorov and I co-founded the startup Andson Biotech. The company is growing, and we recently licensed the technology to enable better biopharmaceutical workflows.

What advice would you give to other researchers thinking about using a tool in the IEN cleanroom?

I would say to only use the cleanroom for your research if you have a burning desire to learn about MEMS/microfabrication or you have to do so for your project. There are very rarely "quick" projects inside cleanrooms. In general, I think if you have the opportunity to learn about anything new you should take that chance.

What is your favorite thing about the IEN cleanroom?

My favorite thing about the IEN cleanroom is the people I've met. Some of my best and longest-term friends have been made in these cleanrooms. I really miss working in the cleanroom as often as I used to, because I don't get to interact with all my best friends. Unfortunately, many of my original friends [from the cleanroom] have moved on to other things. While I miss seeing them, I love to see them succeed!

Learn more about Mason’s project, company, and technology - New Startup Makes Developing Gene Therapies Faster and Easier

Subtitle

Chilmonczyk is the CEO/Co-founder of Andson Biotech and a current cleanroom user

Summary sentence

Chilmonczyk is the CEO/Co-founder of Andson Biotech and a current cleanroom user

Summary

Chilmonczyk is the CEO/Co-founder of Andson Biotech and a current cleanroom user

Dateline

Wed, 05/25/2022 - 12:00

Contact

Laurie Haigh

Location

Atlanta, GA

Associated importer

Keywords

go-ien

Andson Biotech

cleanroom

News room topics

Campus and Community

Core research areas

Electronics and Nanotechnology

Mercury ID

658512

Source updated

Wed, 05/25/2022 - 15:08

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Faculty Honored as National Academy of Inventors Fellows

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Going Back to Basics Yields a Printable, Transparent Plastic That’s Highly Conductive

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Cleanroom User Spotlight: Mason A. Chilmonczyk

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