ELECTROCOM has focused its R&D activities on the research and development of Semiconductor Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Narrow Bandgap Group-III Nitrides, and Organic and Polymeric Microelectronics. The need for increased speed, lower power use, and reduced size in electronic products has resulted in rapid and continued reductions in component size. This ongoing miniaturization is driving the development of improved materials and processing technologies.

ELECTROCOM’s participation in nanomaterials R&D is expected to leave a lasting mark on diverse facets of components and processes to be used in semiconductor production, including wafer materials, transistors, integrated circuits, lithography, interconnects, light emitting diodes, and insulators.

If these R&D efforts remain productive throughout the next decade, nanomaterials, organic materials, and narrow bandgap nitride semiconductors should begin to replace conventional materials in semiconductor logic and memory devices. The efforts of various R&D consortiums, including those with whom ELECTROCOM cooperates, are very critical to this goal and should help overcome obstacles associated with connectivity, high defect rates, and production scalability.

Fundamentals of nanoelectronics and polymerics are, in fact, longer-term projects, which recognize that a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena is essential to the future development of nanoscale and molecular electronics. ELECTROCOM’s current R&D activities will undoubtedly contribute to accelerating the pace of nanoelectronics and organic electronics engineering by concentrating and networking in a concerted manner. The integration of activities in distinct fields of nanoscale and polymeric physics, magnetism, superconductivity, and electronics with the cooperation of universities and government labs should lead to the discovery of a range of new physical phenomena involving quantum dots, wires, wells, and molecular point contacts.

ELECTROCOM’s efforts in this field, which primarily involve the synthesis, characterization, modeling, and simulation of the electrical, optical, and biological properties of nanoscale and molecular devices is critical for new findings. These nano-dimension devices have enormous potential for application in almost every aspect of human life and should lead to revolutionary changes in science and technology. Scientists have yet to obtain a complete understanding of nanoscience, primarily because of its nature as the newest wave of communications technology. A number of scientists and engineers have recently dedicated efforts to fabricate nanostructured devices for practical applications. ELECTROCOM has advanced the study of these devices and has gained significant experience in working with carrier transports through nano-dimensioned semiconductor superlattices and quantum wells.

Nano/Organic Sensors and the Detection of Chemical and Biological Agents:

The devices that ELECTROCOM has studied are nanowire and organic transistors. The objective of this work is to synthesize and derive device parameters, and thus to develop a basic understanding of the device operations. Optimization of these devices is quite challenging. One of the potential applications of these transistors is in detecting chemical and biological warfare agents. Therefore, nanowire/organic transistors are very promising as a vital tool to fight against hazardous and poisonous chemicals. ELECTROCOM’s past experiences in the R&D of electronic/optical properties of quantum well systems have developed our advantages in nanowire/organic R&D, which have already led to the accomplishment of the optimization of nanowire/organic device parameters. Interestingly, many nano/organic devices share generic properties, such as quantum transport, spin-dependent transport, and proximity effects, arising from the presence of phase coherent dynamics and correlations. By gathering experts who are studying these phenomena in different contexts, ELECTROCOM provides a forum for the cross-fertilization of techniques and the exploration of emerging themes.

At this critical moment in history, our country requires highly effective devices to detect the chemical or biological weapons of our enemies. Because of highly miniaturized structures, nanowire/organic nanosensors are ideal for this purpose. Nano/organic sensors are also vastly more efficient than conventional sensors where the detection of chemical and biological nerve gas or anthrax molecules is at issue. The fundamental principle underlying nanowire/organic nanosensors is a change in the quantization of conductivity in the presence of hazardous molecules. ELECTROCOM has also been working to develop, characterize, and model the quantitative change of quantized conductance of nanowire/organic transistors in the presence of foreign chemical and biological molecules. Quantum conductivity is being computed in the framework of the theory of Landauer resistance, on which ELECTROCOM has published several articles.

In a parallel project, ELECTROCOM is also working to use nanoparticles for the manufacture of nanosensors. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is a major principle in detecting foreign molecules by these nanosensors. Due to the absorption of foreign molecules, the surface properties of the nanoparticle are modified, and the Raman spectrum is changed accordingly. A quantitative change in the Raman spectrum due to the absorption of foreign molecules is studied.

InAs/InGaSb III-V Semiconductor Superlattice Photodetectors:

ELECTROCOM strives to develop InAs/GaInSb superlattice based photovoltaic photodetectors that are free from the weaknesses of HgCdTe photodetectors but are operable up to a cutoff wavelength of 21 micron. The ultimate goal of this project is to build superior IR cameras for the US military capable of locating even faint objects from significantly large distances.

Solid State Organic Light Emitting Diodes:

ELECTROCOM has been working to develop organic light emitting diodes with higher performance and higher device lifetimes. The role of triplet and singlet excitation in the degradation process, the effect of morphology of active materials, the role of structural impurities in active layers, the possibility of electrochemical reactions at the interface, the cause of physical defects such as dark spots, the methods of encapsulation and other means of protection against the ambient, and the design of charge transport materials with stable cation or anion radicals are to be explored in detail to address device degradation. Nanowire/organic LEDs have the possibility of enormous application in optoelectronics and medical sciences. The principles of transistors and LED that are mainly dependent on the transport properties of the electrons and band gap engineering can largely control their performance. In order to accomplish this goal, ELECTROCOM has studied the fundamentals of quantum transport, quantum confinement, localization, and electrical conductance in nanowires/organics. All these have led us to focus on the accurate characterization and simulation of device parameters needed for development and advancement.

GaN Nanowire Field Effect Transistors:

Using our past experiences in the growth of thin, uniform, and single-crystal, ELECTROCOM grows GaN nanowires by chemical vapor deposition method for the design and development of GaN FETs. ELECTROCOM is performing extensive numerical simulations by using sophisticated computation tools to gain a first-hand idea of the feasibility of the proposed GaN nanowire FETs. In our simulation, we are devoting attention to crucial parameters such as nanowire size, metal combination for the source, drain and gate contacts, nature and width of the gate dielectric, leakage current, and passivity that dictate the ultimate characteristics of the nanowire FET. The experimental design and fabrication of the devices would follow this numerical simulation. The ultimate goal of this project is to realize manufacturability and maximum reliability of widely applicable GaN nanowire FETs.

Other current projects include:

• Photoluminescence and Interferometer based Detection of Explosive and Poisonous Gases
• Polymer Coated Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors for the Detection of Land Mines
• High Resolution Ultraviolet Raman Spectroscopy for Sensing Bacteria, Narcotics and Viruses
• Detection of electrical activities in the brain
• Identification, Design, and Development of a nanotechnology for the Detection and/or Treatment of Ovarian Cancer