Singapore–MIT Alliance
New technologies are permitting the development of micro- and nano- systems of ultra-high performance electronic devices, as well as systems of photonic, information storage, and electromechanical devices. Future integration of these technologies, and implementation of their wide-ranging applications, will depend critically on an advanced understanding of the selection, processing, and property-optimisation of a wide array of materials and materials combinations. To meet this need, a comprehensive programme of graduate study in the field of advanced materials for micro-and nano-systems has been developed.
Students participate in intensive graduate-level courses in the fundamentals
of electronic, photonic, magnetic and mechanical properties of materials,
and of the fundamental thermodynamic and kinetic principles that provide
the foundations for the development and analysis of new processes for micro-and
nano-materials. These courses on the fundamentals of materials science
and engineering are followed up with an array of
courses covering advanced topics in processing of materials for microelectronic
devices and circuits, and processing of materials for microelectromechanical
devices and systems, as well as advanced courses on electronic and photonic
device physics, on device and system reliability and on computational modeling
of materials properties and processes. Courses are taught by teams of Singapore
and MIT faculty, through a mixture of distance learning and on-site modes.
Tools for remote usage of laboratory equipment are also
being developed for both class-based exercises, and for distance collaborative
research.
Collaborative research programs on materials, processes and devices for electronic, electromechanical, photonic, and information storage devices and systems are under development. Current programmes include research on heteroepitaxial SiGe films on Si substrates, for fabrication multi-mode interference optical filters.Such devices provide excellent insertion and extinction loss, and are designed for 1.3 and 1.55 µm wavelength operation for use in advanced filtering and routing in internet applications.Strained Si films on Si/Ge-on-Si substrates are also under investigation for use in high-performance heterostructure bi-polar transistors and CMOS devices. Research is also being carried out on advanced metallization technology for 0.18 and 0.1 µm technologies, including Cu-based metallurgies and low-k dielectric materials. This work is complemented by research on the development of new experimental techniques and analysis methodologies for circuit-level assessments of the reliability of metallization schemes involving complex interconnect topologies and new materials. The development of processes for growth of piezoelectric (PZT) films on Si microelectromechanical devices to serve as ‘active 'materials for actuation and other applications, is also under investigation. Metallic glass obtained by fast quenching from melt show superior quality in terms of strength, hardness and damping capacity and their properties are being studied for such applications as in golf clubs and high frequencies cores in electronics. New projects on micro batteries and metamorphic epitaxy of large mismatched materials system to minimize dislocations for application in optoelectronics are under investigations.
Research papers for 2002 in SMA's Advanced Materials for Micro- and Nano-Systems
Programme are available through MIT's DSpace archive. DSpace allows full
text searching and browsing of all research papers by title, author, and
date.
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