Nanotechnology and MEMS

Silicon Carbide MEMS for Harsh Environments

Silicon Carbide is a promising material candidate for the development of microelectromechanical (MEM) systems. Because of its excellent electrical, mechanical and chemical properties, it is suitable for applications in harsh environments. The aim of this project will be to design experimental structures and develop the challenging processing techniques that are necessary for the realisation of prototype sensors and actuators.

Metamaterials and Devices

The ability to control optical properties of materials has tremendous impact on a wide range of areas such as optical communications, high-speed computers and spectroscopy. The emerging area of creating artificial meta-devices presents many challenges in both experimental and theoretical research. This project involves the development of fabrication techniques for the creation of 3D meta-devices. The theoretical framework for the experimentally fabricated meta-devices will be provided by Dr George Goussetis at Queen's University Belfast. It is envisaged that such devices could be engineered in an active manner, to prohibit the propagation of light, or allow it to be transmitted only in certain frequencies or to provide light enhancement/focussing in the far field for a variety of applications.

Carbon-based Electronics

Looking beyond conventional electronics based in silicon, it is conceivable that the next revolution in electronics would be based on the integration of another element with silicon. So far, the most promising candidate element set to revolutionise next generation electronics is carbon. This project aims to focus on the engineering aspect of research in this exciting field - to develop novel methods for the integration of carbon-based materials between metallic electrodes on silicon over large areas. Such a step would provide a fundamental basis for the future development of carbon-based electronics.

Silicon Carbide Devices for Power Electronics

Silicon Carbide (SiC) - a wide band-gap semiconductor, is extremely useful for applications in high power and high temperature electronics, due to its high electrical breakdown field. However, a number of processing techniques still need to be developed and optimised before complex device and circuit applications can be realised. Moreover, questions such as: a) limit to device stability at high temperatures, b) effect of device response time as SiC devices shrink to the nanometre scale, are still to be answered. This project will involve device design and modelling with a view to optimise nanoscale devices in SiC for high temperature, high frequency operation.

Examples of on-going work on the above topics can be found in Professor Rebecca Cheung