ABSTRACT I will describe our research on three different solid-state devices, which involve nanometer dimensions (<100nm). The first scaled device, the MOS transistor – used in CMOS technology, has a gate insulator comprised of two insulators (e.g. 0.5nm of SiO2 and 16nm of HfO2 – a so-called, high-K dielectric constant insulator), which are grown with atomic layer deposition (ALD). I will discuss the characterization and modeling of these devices, which are under development for the 32nm ITRS node. The second scaled device, the MANOS transistor, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory (NVSM), is fabricated with a triple dielectric (8.0nm Al2O3, 8.0nm Si3N4, 0.4nm SiO2), where the oxide is a ‘tunneling’ barrier, the nitride the ‘storage’ region, and the aluminum oxide the ‘blocking’ barrier. I will discuss the write/erase, retention and endurance characteristics of these devices as well as the operation of SONOS NVSMs in radiation environments. 32Gb and 64Gb TANOS NVSM arrays have recently been reported near the 40nm and 30nm ITRS nodes, respectively. The third device is a BioMEMS planar implementation of a 3D ‘patch-clamp’ measurement system to characterize ion transport in ion-channels embedded in a biological cell. Ion-channel understanding is essential for the development of pharmaceutical drugs as ion-channels are linked to more than 40% of human diseases. Our BioMEMS research focuses on the development of a high-gain, giga-ohm, transimpedance amplifier to convert kHz, pA ion-channel currents to volts.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER Prof. White received a B.S.E. in Engineering Physics and Mathematics, a M.S. degree in Physics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. His area of research is the characterization and modeling of solid-state devices, sensors and custom integrated circuits. His recent work addresses charge transport and storage in MANOS multi-dielectric nonvolatile memories, MOS and CMOS nanoelectronic transistor modeling, BioMEMS, and SiC power devices. His teaching areas concern the Analysis and Design of Integrated Circuits for Systems Applications and Advanced Sensors and Semiconductor Devices. He has received several IEEE awards - ISDRS Aldert van der Ziel Award, Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award, J.J. Ebers Electron Devices Society Award and the IEEE Fellow Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has published over 275 papers with students and colleagues, contributed chapters to 5 books and holds 27 U.S. Patents. Prior to joining Lehigh, he worked at Westinghouse on advanced circuits for systems applications. He has taken sabbaticals as a visiting scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory, a Senior Research Fulbright Professor in Louvain University in Belgium, and as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. He is the Sherman Fairchild Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the Sherman Fairchild Center at Lehigh University. He has graduated 32 Ph.D.’s, and 60 M.S students. (URL: http://www.ece.lehigh.edu/people/white/)

For further information, please, contact: Xenofon.Koutsoukos@vanderbilt.edu