5th ASCENT+ Newsletter – May 2022
Contents
| SME Testimonial |  |
| Research Accelerator Programme |  |
| Graphene FET Data Available |  |
| Flashlight: ASCENT+ Offering – ALD |  |
| Upcoming Webinar |  |
ASCENT+ Testimonial by UK SME
Dr. M. Fernando Gonzalez-Zalba from the UK SME Quantum Motion Technologies has completed an ASCENT+ Transnational Access and has another in the pipeline. Dr Gonzalez-Zalba gives us an overview of the advantages he gained from ASCENT+ in this testimonial.
Quantum Motion – Testimonial
Announcement: ASCENT+ Research Accelerator Programme
ASCENT+ provides easy access to state-of-the-art facilities at CEA-Leti in France, Fraunhofer in Germany, imec in Belgium, INL in Portugal and Tyndall National Institute in Ireland.
The Research Accelerator Programme gives early career researchers an on-site hands-on introduction to the technology/facilities available through ASCENT+. During the next period, ASCENT+ will sponsor PhD students and early-career postdoctoral researchers to attend advanced nanoelectronics technology training at Tyndall. This will give the ASCENT+ sponsored researchers a clear insight to nanofabrication and outline how they can benefit from the ASCENT+ offerings to accelerate their own research. An expected outcome of the programme is that sponsored researchers will apply for access at Tyndall and/or one of the other facilities to enhance their studies.
- Location
- Tyndall National Institute, Cork, (Ireland)
- Description
- Nanoelectronics Fabrication, Characterisation and Devices
- Duration
- 3 days
- Schedule
- Tuesday 6th-Thursday 8th September 2022
ASCENT+ Research Accelerator Programme – September 2022
Nanoelectronics Fabrication, Characterisation and Devices (Tyndall, Ireland)
- Description
- This short course will involve hands-on practical training on fabrication and characterisation of nanoelectronic technologies.
The topics covered will include:- Nanofabrication: e-beam lithography, molecular doping, etching, and metal/dielectric deposition in the nanoscale.
- Characterisation techniques: electrical, optical and magnetic, physical
- Materials growth (ALD, CVD, MOVPE) and device fabrication (2D materials and quantum devices)
- Programme overview
The course is divided into 6 modules
| Module 1 | Introduction to nanofabrication |
| Module 2 | Metals and dielectrics |
| Module 3 | Physical characterisation |
| Module 4 | Electrical and optical characterisation |
| Module 5 | Advanced materials and integration into devices |
| Module 6 | Future issues – ASCENT+ Offer |
- Who should apply
- Any PhD student or early-career postdoctoral researcher (up to 2 years after their PhD) interested in nanoscale fabrication and nanoelectronics characterisation of next generation materials and devices, who is based outside the Republic of Ireland.
- Schedule
- Tuesday 6th – Thursday 8th September (3 days) at Tyndall National Institute, Cork (Ireland).
- Cost
- This course is free of charge to successful applicants. Flights, accommodation and subsistence will be covered, with a maximum allowance of €400 for return flights (receipt required) and a daily allowance (per diem) of €130 to cover accommodation & subsistence. Any additions costs must be met by the attending PhD students or their Universities.
- Application
- The application is through the online application form only. Closing date: Deadline for applications is Thursday 30th June 2022.
- Criteria
- An ASCENT+ panel at Tyndall National Institute will review all applications and select up to 6 most suitable candidates. The decision of the panel will be final.
Graphene FET Data Available Through ASCENT+ Virtual Access!
Access free-of-charge INL’s Graphene FET Characterisation Data through ASCENT+ Virtual Access. INL offers standard graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) for ASCENT+ users as part of the transnational access.
The GFET chips are produced on 200-mm wafers from CVD-grown monolayer graphene. The individual GFETs are arranged in groups on each chip, where within each group, transistors have one common source electrode and each one has an individual drain electrode.
Graphene FET chip with 20 transistors
The high quality of the CVD-grown monolayer graphene is expected to translate into high performance of these GFETs. At INL, the standard application of GFET chips is in biosensors, whereby the common gate electrode supports measurements in a “liquid gate” configuration in electrolyte solutions. These electrolyte-gated GFET biosensors have achieved, for example, 25 attomolar detection limit for label-free detection of DNA. See DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.8b00344 for details.
Some ASCENT+ users, however, are also interested in using these standard GFET chips as more conventional transistors (with a shared bottom gate) and have enquired about the performance characteristics of the GFETs in that configuration. Responding to the requests from users, CNRS partners have adapted to GFETs a commonly used transconductance and Y-function method for characterization of FETs, that was originally described in DOI: 10.1049/el:19880369
These measurements revealed that devices on chips produced by INL exhibit the typical characteristics of GFETs: ambipolar I(V) curves, each with a Dirac point. In the bottom-gate configuration, mobility values calculated using the Y-function methodology (based on the slope of Y curve in the 3 to 5V range of gate voltage) are in the range from 2600 to 5000 cm2/Vs.
The measurement data from which the mobility values were determined are now available from ASCENT+ virtual access.
Representative Y-function data for GFETs in a bottom-gate configuration
Flashlight: ASCENT+ Offering
Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD)
This video gives a short introduction to Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) offered by Dr Ian Povey at Tyndall. Ian discusses the principles of this deposition process, its advantages and disadvantages, and how ALD might be of use to you.
ALD at Tyndall
For more information on ASCENT+ offerings, please visit our ASCENT+ Online Showroom
Learn More with Our Webinars
Recordings of previous webinars are available HERE. Save the date for the upcoming webinar to discover more on CEA-LETI’s Atom Probe Tomography which is on offer through ASCENT+:
- June 23rd, 2022
- Advanced Characterisation Techniques, Adeline Grenier (CEA-Leti)
For more details about this Webinar, follow this link or click HERE to register to attend.
Previous Issues:
Jan 2022 | Sep 2021 | Jul 2021 | Mar 2021
Jul 2019 / Apr 2019 / Jan 2019 / Oct 2018 / Jul 2018 / Apr 2018 / Jan 2018 / Oct 2017 / Jul 2017 / Apr 2017 / Jan 2017 / Sep 2016 / Jun 2016 / Feb 2016
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements 871130 and 654384.