Novel Semiconductor Devices: From Fabrication and Characterization to Physical Understanding and Practical Applications
The Electronics and Natural Sciences Research Laboratory designs, fabricates, and characterizes novel semiconductor devices; establishes how their materials, structures, and electrical or optical inputs govern behavior; and applies that understanding to develop technologies that address important problems. We work with external partners to license and commercialize promising technologies, carrying ideas from device invention and laboratory demonstration toward real-world use. The M-SDC memristor technology has been licensed to Knowm, Inc. and is commercially available. ENVIR-OGT chemical-sensing technology has been licensed to Pearlhill Technologies, LLC, for commercialization.
Our research combines purposeful device design with mechanism-driven investigation. We create semiconductor devices to address application-specific needs, then use experiments and characterization to establish how their materials, structures, and inputs govern operation. The optically gated transistor, for example, was designed as a selector device for resistive-memory arrays. Unexpected responses can also reveal new opportunities, and we investigate those responses to determine whether they can be understood, controlled, and developed into useful technologies.
ENSRL has strength in extracting information from time-dependent device behavior. Designed electrical or optical pulse sequences can reveal dynamics that are not accessible through a single measurement. We combine these measurements with machine-learning analysis to identify meaningful patterns in complex device responses. In ENVIR-OGT sensing, for example, optical pulse sequences expose chemical-specific transistor dynamics that enable PFAS compounds to be differentiated without analyte-specific functionalization.
Students in ENSRL gain hands-on experience in semiconductor microfabrication and electrical and optical device characterization. They learn to design experiments, fabricate and test devices, interpret their responses, and connect measured behavior to the materials, device structures, and physical mechanisms that govern operation.