Nanoscale
Electronic Devices and
Materials
Exploring Future
Electron Devices for VLSI
Applications
Welcome to visit my group home page! It is a
rewarding career
in my research group. My research focuses on studies of gate insulators
for advanced MOS transistors, fabrication and characterization of
nano-devices and sensors using novel
nano-materials. The graduates in my research
area are highly demanded in industry. I always need
outstanding people! Please feel free to send me
your
resume.
Dr. Chen's Research
Accomplishment
Hydgogen/Deuterium
(H/D)
Isotope Effect.
This effect was discovered
in 1996 by Drs. Lyding and Hess at
University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). As a graduate student at UIUC, Dr.
Chen helped develop this effect into
a
manufacturing process, so that integrated
circuits (microchips) lifetime is dramatically improved (IEEE Electron.
Dev.
Lett., vol. 19, pp. 444-446, 1998；IEEE
Electron. Dev. Lett., vol. 21, no. 5, 221-223, 2000). In addition, the
classical theory suggested that the hot-electron
degradation of MOS transistors was caused by hot electron injection
into the
gate insulator (SiO2). Based on his experiments
using H/D isotope effect, Dr. Chen
proved that it is not the hot-electron injection into the oxide but the
hot-electron
bombarding the SiO2/Si interface that causes the
degradation, (“On the mechanism for interface
trap generation in MOS transistors due to channel hot carrier stressing”,
IEEE
Electron. Dev. Lett., vol. 21, no. 1, 24-26, 2000). This laid a
foundation for
establishing a more accurate theoretical lifetime model for microchips,
which
is very important for the reliability of computers, cell phones, and
iPods/iPads etc.
TiO2 Nanotubes and Carbon Nanotubes.
Dr.
Chen
had extensive experience in anodization of
aluminum when he
worked on humidity sensors from 1988 to 1992. In 2001, based on his
experience in anodization, working with Dr.
D. W. Gong, his postdoctoral
research
associate, and Prof. C. A. Grimes who was then at Kentucky, he successfully created TiO2
nanotubes through anodization of pure titanium,
a new type of inorganic oxide nanotubes. TiO2 nanotubes
may find wide applications in biomedical and materials engineering (“Titanium
Oxide Nanotube Arrays Prepared By Anodic
Oxidation”, J.
Mater. Research 16, 3331-3334, 2001, Citation: >1000
on Google). He and his
co-workers fabricated the first vertically aligned carbon nanotube
(CNT) arrays
with high density and uniformity on silicon
substrates using porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) as templates (“Growth
of well-aligned carbon nanotube arrays on
silicon substrate using porous alumina film as nanotemplate”,
Appl.
Phys. Lett. vol.
79, 3083-3085, 2001, Citation: >100 on Google; “Ethylene
flame Synthesis of well-aligned multi-walled
carbon nanotubes”, Chem.
Phys. Lett.
vol. 346, pp. 23-28, 2001, Citation:
>100 on Google). This laid a
foudation for integration
of carbon nanotube arrays with silicon electronics.
Drift-free
moisture sensor. Working with his colleagues at
University of Electronic Science &
Technology, Chengdu, China, Dr.
Chen developed
the world’s first reliable and drift-free humidity/moisture sensor for
trace moisture measurement (<1 ppmv) using anodization (J. Am.
Ceram. Soc., vol. 74, pp. 1325-1330, 1991, and Proc. 27th annual
conference, IEEE Industry Application Soc., Houston, TX, Oct.
1992, vol. 2, pp1668-1675). He won two awards for this contribution:
The Second Prize Paper Award, Industrial Automation and Control
Committee, the 27th Annual Conference, IEEE Industry Application
Society, USA, 1992 and The National Award for Invention: The Third
Prize Award, Ministry of Science & Technology, China, 1995. His
recent technical review about this drift-free moisture sensor and other
humidity sensors has made a large impact on humidity sensor research
(“Humidity sensors: a review of materials and mechanisms”, Sensor
Letters vol. 3, 274-295, 2005，Citation:
>140 on Google).
Phonon-energy
coupling enhancement effect. Based on fundamental studies of the
mechanism of the H/D isotope effect, he discovered a new effect,
phonon-energy coupling enhancement, which results in dramatic reduction
of leakage (tunneling) current of SiO2 by 3-5 orders of
magnitude (Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 88, 082905 (2006), Solid-State
Electronics, vol. 50, 1004–1011 (2006), Appl. Phys. Lett., vol.
91, 223513 (2007)). This effect also results in reduction of leakage
current of high-k gate oxides (HfSiON), which might be used in silicon
MOS transistors, key devices in modern integrated circuits (Appl. Phys.
Lett., vol. 89, 162903 (2006)). Because
more research is needed for understanding of its physical principle and
the material structure, this research is still in its infant stage and
its impact may only be seen years later.
|
