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Research Centre Belgium
Molecular electronic components to enhance functionality and performance. Other nanoelectronic orientations are the study of Qubit implementations and the use of electron spin in semiconductor devices (spintronics).
At the system level, it is concentrating on wireless communication in and around the human body; ad-hoc networking of wireless nodes; reliability, accuracy and sensitivity issues; position determination; and design technology for a fast reproducible design cycle.
At the components level, is focusing on the following elements:
- Power supply: micromechanical power MEMS, solar cells, and energy storage
- Low-power wireless transceiver: low-power coding, modulation techniques. Low-power front-ends
- Sensor: low-power read-out electronics. Sensors with a variety of different transducing mechanisms but with a common read-out interface.
At the technology level, issues to be dealt with include:
Functionalization of electric surfaces for biosensors: self-assembling monolayers
- Packaging: ultra-dense packaging, 3D packaging, semi-permeable and hermetical packaging, integrated passives.
- Wafer thinning
- Ultra-low power CMOS technology.
- Micro-machining
- Horizontal integration: adding functionality such as sensors and MEMS to CMOS.
- Disposable technologies: polymer electronics.
As a very important driver for nanotechnology developments, the centre has identified early adopters of nanotechnology such as biosensors and M (N) EMS.
In the area of biosensors the centre is aiming at the creation of protein chips for medical diagnostics, which could be used for diagnosis of diseases, but more broadly could also be used as health monitoring systems.
The merging of electronics and biology is currently being applied in the creation of DNA chips for gene analysis and therapy. These semiconductor structures contain a layer of DNA that interacts with other biological agents. The final aim would be to have fully automated tests that could be run virtually instantaneously in a doctor’s office.
Moreover, the centre fosters the enabling technologies like self-assembly (SAM e.g.), nano-biological manipulation of proteins, neurons on chip, biosensors with magnetic labelling technology, quantum structures and spin transport devices and characterization on the nanoscale.
Main research areas
Nanomaterials
- Atomically-controlled material synthesis enables quantum-size effects in semiconductor components like high- mobility transistors, quantum-well SiGe and III-V devices and laser diodes, building on the strong expertise in epitaxy of III-V and SiGe heterostructures;
- Atomic layer deposition is used for barrier films, nano-laminates and high-k dielectrics with nanoscale thickness control (e.g. 5 or <10nm TiN on oxide/carbide or TiN/WN laminates on SiO2);
- Gold and silver nano-rods, ultra-thin nano-scaled gold films and magnetic nano-particles are used in biosensor applications. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and UV-Vis spectra are used to study the deposition of gold nanoparticles on functionalized surfaces. Carbon nano-particle blends are used to improve the performance of organic solar cells;
- Porous structures: porous low-k materials are applied in back-end-of-line interconnects and porous silicon is used as template for epitaxial solar cells.
Surface functionalization and self assembly
- Nano-scale mixed self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are used as template for controlled deposition and attachment of organic bioreceptors in biosensor applications. This and other SAM developments are key elements to enhance the performance of biosensors based on the interdigitated electrode (IDE), surface acoustic wave (SAW) and magnetic detection concepts;
- SAMs support the building of an active organic semiconductor layer (SAMFET) using a two-step process in which biphenyl, pyrene and naphthalene derivatives are coupled to an amino-terminated monolayer on SiO2;
- SAM on Cu interconnects and bondpad surfaces are studied.
Nano-devices
- Nano-CMOS transistors with sub-40nm gate length, FIN-FET-like nano-devices and devices based on strained layers are being developed;
- Charge-trapping devices based on silicon-rich-oxide (SRO) dielectrics are studied as an alternative structure for non-volatile memories;
- Spintronic components, making use of the electron spin rather than its charge, can lead to new applications such as quantum computing. IMEC achieved a breakthrough in room temperature efficient electrical spin injection, which paves the way to novel device implementations;
- Arrays of quantum transformers, being established as superconducting rings coupled by permalloy cores, are studied as possible candidates to build readable qubit registers;
- Static and dynamical modeling of low-dimensional quantum conductors (including carbon nanotubes) using quantum mechanical energy and momentum balance equations for open and closed circuits;
- Intra-grain thin-film organic transistors are being developed.
nEMS and scanning probes
- Nanotechnology research relies on a whole set of scanning probe techniques, including atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), scanning resistance probe (SRP), scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) and transient scanning magneto-optic Kerr effect microscopy;
- Starting from proven materials and expertise in design, modeling and reliability work on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), IMEC develops their nano-scale siblings called nano-electromechanical systems (nEMS) for e.g. high-frequency components;
- The tapping-mode AFM and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) are combined for simultaneous investigation/ detection of biological molecules, e.g. human plasma fibrinogen adsorption on a metallic surface;
Nano-fabrication
- Deep UV lithography is being used for nano-scale test pattern generation and will be followed by extreme UV (EUV) lithography;
- E-beam lithography is used for single-molecule junction gap structures, for the fabrication of microcontact printing (MCP) and nano-imprint lithography (NIL) masks, and for nano-scale interdigitated electrodes (IDE) for biosensing;
- NIL technology is under development for nano-scale pattern transfer and MCP for patterned surface functionalization.
Molecular interconnects
- Research in molecular electronics is focusing on molecules, carbon nano-tubes (CNTs) and nano-rods;
- Knowledge on process steps of classical Cu/low-k processing is re-used to support new interconnect technologies;
- Electroless plating is a useful technique for metal coating of self-organized molecular interconnects;
- Electronic properties of (single) molecules are studied for sensing applications where top-down and bottom-up meet.
Soft-hard interface
- Neurons-on-chip: Development of reliable communication between living cells and silicon micro-devices in collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The generic technology will be used in biomedical devices to restore vision and create brain-controlled robotic limbs.
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