FERROELECTRIC
MATERIALS & DEVICES
GROUP
Manipulating & Integrating Ferroelectric Materials & Devices for Microelectronics
Shifting Microelectronics Research
from Semiconductor-Centered Solutions
to Dielectric-Driven Design
Embedded Files
GOAL
GOAL
Addressing Challenges in Energy Consumption-Storage-Generation for Energy-Sustainable Microelectronics
Addressing Challenges in Energy Consumption-Storage-Generation for Energy-Sustainable Microelectronics
As the global demand for computing continues to rise, its exponentially growing energy implications can no longer be ignored; one solution lies with new materials & device physics.
As the global demand for computing continues to rise, its exponentially growing energy implications can no longer be ignored; one solution lies with new materials & device physics.
Our group aims to address modern energy grand challenges – namely the unsustainable exponential rise in global energy consumption from computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices –
Our group aims to address modern energy grand challenges – namely the unsustainable exponential rise in global energy consumption from computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices –
from a microelectronics perspective, harnessing collective electronic phenomena in ferroelectric materials engineered at the unit cell level towards self-powered intelligent microsystems.
from a microelectronics perspective, harnessing collective electronic phenomena in ferroelectric materials engineered at the unit cell level towards self-powered intelligent microsystems.
Energy-Efficient Electronics
energy demand from computing has been increasing much faster than the world's energy production; at this rate, in 20 years, computing will require more electricity than the world can generate; novel energy-efficient computing paradigms are required
Energy-Autonomous Electronics
the exponential rise of IoT smart devices (approaching 1 trillion) and heat dissipation challenges in modern microchips demand innovations in self-powered nanotechnologies - spanning energy storage, energy harvesting, power delivery - integrated on-chip
Edge-Intelligent Electronics
3D ICs with computing (energy-efficient logic + embedded memory), energy tech (energy storage, nanogenerators, power delivery) & sensing (multimodal in-sensor processing) integrated for autonomous data processing at the edge, all leveraging ferroelectric building blocks
Next-Gen Today's Microelectronics
accelerating the translation of electronic devices with unprecedented performance to defense & commercial semiconductor foundries by engineering ferroelectric order and breakthrough electronic responses in simple materials already used in modern microelectronics
energy-efficient electronics
exploiting collective electronic phenomena
energy-autonomous electronics
from low-power to self-powered electronics
edge-intelligent electronics
3D-integrated micro AI engines
lab-to-fab translation
university research to wafer-scale manufacturing
APPROACH
APPROACH
Designing Emergent Electronic Phenomena in Atomically-Engineered Ferroelectric Materials & Integration into CMOS Technology
Designing Emergent Electronic Phenomena in Atomically-Engineered Ferroelectric Materials & Integration into CMOS Technology
We are an interdisciplinary group at the intersection of materials science, condensed matter physics, and electrical engineering to realize the applied impact of ferroelectric materials.
Rather than exploring the entire periodic table, we focus on manipulating simple dielectrics in today's mass production microelectronics and their integration with current & emerging semiconductor platforms.
Materials Science
atomic-scale engineering
inversion symmetry breaking & phase transitions
atomic-layer thin films, superlattices, metastable polymorphs
Condensed Matter
emergent electronic phenomena
building blocks: collective electronic order, phase transitions
negative phenomena: capacitance, piezoelectricity, size effects
Nanoelectronics
on-chip computing & energy technologies
computing: logic transistors, nonvolatile memory, AI hardware
energy: energy storage & harvesting & power delivery capacitors
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Ferroelectronics Library: harnessing ferroelectric phenomena to discover new paradigms for microelectronic building blocks
Ferroelectronics Library: harnessing ferroelectric phenomena to discover new paradigms for microelectronic building blocks
In order to accelerate the technological adoption of new electronic devices (Lab-to-Fab translation), we focus on manipulating simple materials in today's mass production microelectronics.
In particular, we engineer ferroelectric order in HfO2-ZrO2 – the dielectric used in today's state-of-the-art logic transistors and memory capacitors – to redesign integrated circuit building blocks.
Memory
from defective (ionic) to collective (ferroic) electronic order
for atomic-scale nonvolatile switching
Logic
from high-k dielectrics to negative-k ferroelectrics
for energy-efficiency high-performance transistors
Energy & Power
from electrochemical to electrostatic energy storage
for ultrahigh-density ultrafast-charging capacitors
Lab-to-Fab
Samsung confirmation of ultrathin ferroelectricity in HfO2-ZrO2 on Si ACS AMI 2021 | Nature Electronics 2023
Samsung Electronics collaborative ferroelectric integration into next-gen 3D FeFET platforms
DARPA Lead PI: 3D-stacked ferroelectric logic+memory platform for next-gen AI processor
Academia
Spurred theoretical focus on unconventional origins of ferroelectricity in ultrathin HfO2-ZrO2
Lab-to-Fab
U.S. DoD Foundry integration of neg-k gate stack into Defense Foundry SOI tech: IEDM 2022
Samsung Electronics integration of same neg-k stack into FinFET tech: Nature Electronics 2023
Intel highlighted neg-k EOT scaling tech as a future for transistors: VLSI 2025 | Science 2022
GlobalFoundries collaborative neg-k integration into next-gen GF SOI & FinFET platforms
CHIPS Act Project Director for NSTC TVIP program: FEOL Ferroelectric materials for Logic & Advanced Memory Enhancement
Academia
Spurred external experimental validations of same ultrathin HfO2-ZrO2 neg-k stack
Lab-to-Fab
U.S. DoD Foundry integration of same NC energy storage stack into 3D cap process: Nature 2024
ARPA-E Lead PI: ferroelectric capacitors as next-gen MLCC for data center power
Samsung Electromechanics collaborative program on next-gen on-chip microcapacitors & MLCCs
RESEARCH AREAS
RESEARCH AREAS
New Paradigms for Electronic Materials & Devices
New Paradigms for Electronic Materials & Devices
Materials Design
Materials Design
Ferroelectric Materials for Microelectronics
Ferroelectric Materials for Microelectronics
(i) Unprecedented electronic properties via electronic phenomena (e.g. negative permittivity, phase transitions) stabilized in composite systems with collective electronic order (e.g. ferroelectricity)
(i) Unprecedented electronic properties via electronic phenomena (e.g. negative permittivity, phase transitions) stabilized in composite systems with collective electronic order (e.g. ferroelectricity)
(ii) Accelerated Lab-to-Fab translation by stabilizing such novel phenomena in CMOS-compatible materials
(ii) Accelerated Lab-to-Fab translation by stabilizing such novel phenomena in CMOS-compatible materials
Computing & Memory
Computing & Memory
Energy-Efficient Electronics
Energy-Efficient Electronics
(i) From high-k dielectrics to negative-k ferroelectrics for advanced logic transistors with ultralow power operation
(i) From high-k dielectrics to negative-k ferroelectrics for advanced logic transistors with ultralow power operation
(ii) From defective (ionic) to collective (ferroic) phenomena for energy-efficient & area-efficient nonvolatile high-bandwidth memory (HBM) & AI hardware accelerators
(ii) From defective (ionic) to collective (ferroic) phenomena for energy-efficient & area-efficient nonvolatile high-bandwidth memory (HBM) & AI hardware accelerators
Energy & Power
Energy & Power
Energy-Autonomous Electronics
Energy-Autonomous Electronics
(i) From electrochemical to electrostatic energy storage for on-chip ultracapacitors and power delivery
(i) From electrochemical to electrostatic energy storage for on-chip ultracapacitors and power delivery
(ii) From thermoelectric to pyroelectric thermal-energy conversion for on-chip energy harvesting and thermal management
(ii) From thermoelectric to pyroelectric thermal-energy conversion for on-chip energy harvesting and thermal management
TOOLBOX
TOOLBOX
Atoms to Devices
Atoms to Devices
Materials-by-Design Synthesis
To stabilize emergent phenomena beyond the standard unit cell, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) manufactures hierarchical “super-cells”. ALD, used in today's microelectronics, deposits atomically-precise defect-free films uniformly across large-area substrates in a 3D-conformal manner to facilitate large-scale integration & Lab-to-Fab translation.
Thin Film Characterization
To understand the microscopic origins underlying electronic metamaterials, we employ (i) synchrotron x-rays (diffraction, spectroscopy, microscopy), (ii) microscopy (electron, scanning probe), and (iii) transport (ultrafast, cryogenic, etc) at National Laboratories, MIT facilities, and in-house setups.
Electronic Devices
To realize enhanced performance derived from emergent symmetry-broken phenomena, we integrate electronic metamaterials into relevant device structures (e.g. capacitors, transistors) fabricated (i) in-house at MIT.nano (ii) next-door at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and (iii) in collaboration with semiconductor industries.
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