New SRC Center Established at UCLA Engineering Center will Explore New Materials and Atomic-scale Structures for More Powerful and Energy-efficient Semiconductor Components
A new multidisciplinary research center established at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science aims to revolutionize future semiconductor technologies by developing new nanoscale materials and structures that take advantage of properties unavailable at larger scales.
The Center for Function Accelerated nanoMaterial Engineering (FAME) is supported by $35 million in funding over the next five years by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), a consortium of semiconductor industry companies, and by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to address the national needs of the advanced semiconductor research.
“UCLA has again been recognized as a leading hub for next generation research ideas and has established itself as the nation’s leading nanotechnology and nanoelectronics R&D think tank,” said UCLA Vice Chancellor for Research James Economou. “FAME follows FENA (Functional Engineered NanoArchitectonics), for which UCLA has been a lead for the past 10 years and has catalyzed the high-tech economic sector of Southern California”
The Director of the new center is Jane P. Chang, UCLA Engineering’s associate dean of research and physical resources, and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Chang holds the William Frederick Sayer Endowed Chair in Materials Electrochemistry.
“This is truly an interdisciplinary research center where science and engineering are integrated to enable innovation in solid state devices,” Chang said. “The unique and fascinating functionalities that we can tailor by manipulating matters at the atomic scale open up enormous opportunities to design devices that defy what was considered not possible a decade ago. Advancing the performance of analog, logic or memory devices by many orders of magnitude will push the envelope of electronics and information technology in the next decades. We are doing research in truly exciting times!”
“I am so pleased to have Professor Chang to lead this new center to continue UCLA’s leadership in the frontier in semiconductor research,” said Kang Wang, the director of FENA and Distinguished Professor and Raytheon Professor of Electrical Engineering.
“Here at UCLA Engineering, we have created an ecosystem over the past decade that has made giant leaps in nanoscale engineering,” said Vijay K. Dhir, dean of the school. “Through the new FAME center, our faculty, students and collaborators will continue to lead research in this frontier, for the benefit the semiconductor and defense industries, and for society.”
“FAME will explore materials and structures beyond traditional silicon, which most electronic components are made of today,” said the center’s Executive Director Kosmas Galatsis, a UCLA adjunct associate professor of materials science and engineering. “These materials could enable much more energy efficient computers, mobile phones, and other electronic devices and components, such as computer memory or display screens.”
FAME is one of six university-based research centers announced by SRC through its Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research network (STARnet). The new UCLA-based research center is a multi-university partnership that includes 35 faculty researchers from 16 of the nation’s top universities.
“Our outstanding research team explores the unique functionality from the interplay of electrons and atoms, develops advanced theory and model to guide the material design, pioneers in state-of-the-art techniques to achieve atomic precision in material synthesis, and integrates these multifunctional materials to realize advanced devices that will have a revolutionizing impact to the semiconductor and defense industry.” Chang added. “Our faculty researchers are at the frontier in the world and the training our students will receive will make them future leaders.”
