By Meghan Melvin & Preetha Kingsview | Microsystems Technology Laboratories
MIT research lab tours, an MIT.nano tour, a sponsor company visit to Analog Devices, and deep dive presentations were just a few of the highlights at the Second Annual Review Meeting of the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s (SRC) Joint University Microelectronics Program (JUMP) 2.0 Superior Energy-Efficient Materials and Devices (SUPREME) Center, held at the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing on June 10-12, 2024.
SUPREME is one of seven microelectronics research centers funded through the JUMP 2.0 consortium of the SRC and its partners. It is led by Director Huili (Grace) Xing, the William L. Quackenbush Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University and Associate Director Tomas Palacios, MIT’s Clarence J. LeBel Professor of EECS and director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL). Researchers at SUPREME explore the new materials and devices that will drive the semiconductor industry in the next 5-15 years, while also training the next generation of microelectronics multidisciplinary scientists and engineers.
“This year’s annual review brought together 168 attendees to MIT, including expert researchers from 15 SRC sponsor companies and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to review the latest research results that are paving the way towards a more sustainable future,” says Roman Caudillo, SRC’s JUMP 2.0 and JUMP Director. “The palette of research topics that were discussed covers a broad range, from 2D materials, nitrides, oxides, ferroelectrics, spintronics, ionic, electrical, to optical materials, and it is all being powered by the 25 Principal Investigators (PIs) and their 198 students from across 13 universities.”
On day one of the multi-day event, attendees were given the opportunity to tour labs on the MIT campus and offsite at a sponsor company campus. About two dozen industry experts, PI’s and students traveled to Wilmington, MA to visit Analog Devices (ADI), a JUMP 2.0 sponsor company, and got to experience the state-of-the-art analog and mixed signal chip manufacturing spaces at ADI. Back at MIT, more than 90 attendees visited and toured labs on campus, including MIT.nano and the faculty labs of Prof. Luqiao Liu, Prof. Farnaz Niroui, Prof. Jing Kong, Prof. Bilge Yildiz, and Prof. Tomas Palacios. These three-hour extensive lab tours were attended by industry sponsors, PI’s and students.
On Tuesday morning, the annual review started with an overview of the center’s mission by Adam Knapp, JUMP 2.0 and JUMP Program Manager. Dr. Dev Palmer, Managing Director of the Next-Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing (NGMM) Program at DARPA and DARPA liaison to the JUMP 2.0 program, reminded attendees to pay attention to the foundational values of DARPA and SRC JUMP 2.0 which will “always be to drive long-range innovations in information and communication technologies with a goal of disruptive research.”
SUPREME Center Director Huili (Grace) Xing then led an overview of the center’s activities over the past year, highlighting the most critical need to look at energy efficient materials and devices to increase sustainability and emphasized that as the driver for the Center in the coming years. The day continued with thorough deep dive presentations followed by student lightning talks and poster sessions. On Tuesday afternoon, an Industry-Student Networking Session was held where panelists discussed their career trajectories followed by an extensive Q&A. Following this session all attendees enjoyed the center reception and dinner at the MIT museum. The second day continued with the deep dive presentations on topics such as gallium nitride-based materials and devices, and 2D transistors. Four more poster sessions provided attendees with additional details on the research performed by the center in the last year, and the center Associate Director, Prof. Tomas Palacios closed the review with a summary and outlook for next year. As he highlighted, “These are the most exciting times for microelectronics in its entire history. The students and researchers working in the field are true superheroes, as their innovations and hard work will enable the more sustainable, equitable and smarter microelectronics systems needed to address some of humankind most pressing issues in energy, transportation, healthcare and information technologies.”
Five different awards were provided to the best lightning talks, as selected by industry attendees. The following students received awards:
Best Lightning Talk Session 1: Jiadi Zhu
PI Tomas Palacios, MIT
Poster Title: High-performance multi-channel MoS2 transistors for front-end-of-line integration beyond 1 nm node
Best Lightning Talk Session 2: Nashrah Afroze
PI Asif Khan, GA Tech
Poster Title: Interface engineering for high performance ferroelectric memories at elevated temperatures (85-125° C)
Best Lightning Talk Session 3: Yeryun Cheon
PI Judy Cha, Cornell
Poster Title: Nanomolding of topological semimetals for low-resistivity interconnects
Best Lightning Talk Session 4: Zhien (Abigail) Wang
PI Jing Kong, MIT
Poster Title: Automatic 2D Material Synthesis System
Best Undergraduate Lightning Talk: Emma Sponga
PI Daniel Gall, RPI
Poster Title: Design of a Custom Sample Stage for a New Sputter Deposition System
