Home
The Institute for Microelettronics
IMM activity extends from basic research (investigation of innovative materials and processes) to technological concern (prototyping and/or technological transfer to enterprises).
Thanks to the participation to many European projects, IMM benefit from collaboration with prestigious international research government institutions, such us Laboratoire d'Electronique de Technologie et d'Instrumentation (LETI), Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center (IMEC), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Centro Nacional de Microelecrónica (CNM), Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, and with a lot of top-level semiconductors companies, such us STMicroelectronics (ST), Numonyx, Philips, SILVACO, AMD, Tower Semiconductor, Siemens, as well as many others enterprises exploiting micro and nanotechnologies, such as Alenia Aeronautica, Alenia Aermacchi, Carlo Gavazzi Space, etc.
The strong interaction with enterprises does not prevent, but often promotes the development of fundamental research activity. Indeed, the strong competitive fields of microelectronics requires to handle “aggressive” and ambitious research programs whose results may produce only long-time practical applications. For this reason the Institute holds strong interest in all the emerging fields arisen from nanotechnologies which open the door to many innovative, not necessarily pure electronic applications.
Graphene electronics
Graphene electronics could be faster than in Si due to the intrinsic material properties. Unconceivable devices in Si could be instead realized in graphene: quantum devices, spintronics, transparent circuits for photovoltaic, integrated circuits on textile substrates. Graphene is a hexagonal structure with C atoms in the summits repeated to cover a honeycomb planar surface with a thickness of only one atom. Graphene manifests very long carrier diffusion length and ballistic transport also at room temperature. So, carrier motilities several orders of magnitude higher than in Si are expected. With a very low thermal generation it can guarantee a high current density and considering its further properties (high electron saturation velocity, high thermal conductivity) graphene appears as an extremely fascinating material to realize devices with amazing performances. Graphene has been demonstrated only in 2004 by A.Geim and K. Novoselov who have been awarded by the Nobel Prize already this year (2010) for the discovery.
The researchers at IMM are involved in the development of graphene electronics (both the material growth in large area flakes and innovative devices) since 2005. They have been among the first to measure locally its properties by introducing innovative methods at nanoscale. In particular, by a scanning capacitance microscopy the local quantum capacitance has been measured and then the carrier diffusion length and the mobility could be calculated. Maps of local density of states, of carrier diffusion length and mobility can be carried out. Such measurements allowed to clarify and improve the carrier transport mechanisms of graphene on different materials and the influence of defects from irradiation or from wrinkles formed during growth. In mean time, the studies go along within a European coordinate project directed by IMM, GRAPHIC-RF, and funded by the Eurographene program of the European Science Foundation. To date, the IMM researchers are able to grow and deposit graphene by several methods on different substrates, even on the entire surface of a 100 mm SiC wafer, are able to fully characterise graphene also by innovative and originally developed methods, and they also achieved the capability to fabricate electronic devices on it.
In memory of Vito Raineri
The Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems mourns the sudden loss of Dr. Vito Raineri.
He was born in Enna (Italy) in 1962. In 1987 he got the Master Degree in Physics (cum laude) at the University of Catania and in 1991 the PhD in Physics. He was visitor scientist for one year at AMOLF-FOM in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in 1990, researcher at IMEC in Leuven (Belgium) in 1992-1993, and consultant at ST Microelectronics in 1993-1994. In April 1994 he joined as Researcher the permanent staff of the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems of CNR. In 2001 he became Senior Scientist of CNR, and he was in charge for the research group “Power and RF devices and passive components for power electronics”. Since 2007 he was Research Director of CNR.
He was a recognized pioneer in the field of the scanning probe microscopy and founder of one of the most advanced laboratories at CNR-IMM in Catania. He gave a fundamental scientific contribution in several fields, among them in power electronics, in wide band gap semiconductors (SiC, GaN) and recently on graphene.
He was co-author of more the 300 papers on international journals, ten books, several review papers, six US patents, and he received 8 national and international awards. He was frequently invited to give review lectures at international conferences, he was in the international steering committee of some important scientific events and he has been chairman of 8 international conferences.
He coordinated several national and European projects and he was promoter of several scientific initiatives of his collaborators.
The colleagues and collaborators cherish the fond memories of working with such a charismatic individual who contributed such a unique approach to problem solving.
Search
News and Events
Collaborations
Visitors
- Total Visitors: 311265
- Unique Visitors: 25734
- Published Nodes: 512
- Your IP: 38.107.179.213
- Since: Sat, 10/09/2010 - 2:51pm
