April Seminar: Ferroelectric hafnia-on-semiconductor frequency control devices: Unleashing the power of nano-mechanics on chip – April 8

 Please join us for the April MIT.nano Seminar Series!

 Roozbeh Tabrizian

tabrizian headshotAssociate Professor, NELMS Rising Star Endowed Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Florida

Date: Monday, April 8, 2024
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET
Location: Grier Combined (34-401) 
Reception to follow.


 

Abstract

The incorporation of nanoscale piezoelectric transducers into advanced semiconductor nodes enables the direct implementation of high-frequency nanomechanical resonators onto CMOS chips. The discovery of metastable ferroelectric phase in hafnia heralds the long-awaited arrival of this integrated piezoelectric transducer. Hafnia films, already utilized in amorphous form as high-k dielectrics in standard semiconductor processes, can be further engineered to stabilize in the ferroelectric phase with significant piezoelectric coupling.

Hafnia piezoelectric transducers pave the way for the development of on-chip nanomechanical resonators with quality factors several orders of magnitude higher than solid-state counterparts. This exceptional performance, combined with seamless integration with electronic circuitry, enables the creation of on-chip clocks, local oscillators, and microwave filters, meeting the escalating frequency-control requirements in computing and communication applications.

This presentation will provide an overview of Tabrizian Lab’s work focusing on the development of nanoscale hafnia transducers and their application in creating semiconductor nanomechanical resonators, oscillators, and filters. Specifically, it will cover (1) temperature-insensitive hafnia resonators for on-chip clock generation; (2) massively integrated ferroelectric-gate fin filters for microwave spectral processing; and (3) self-amplified ferroelectric-on-SiGe resonators for electronics-free sustained oscillation.
 

Biography

Roozbeh Tabrizian is an associate professor and the NELMS Rising Star Endowed Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida. He received his B.S. (2007) degree in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, and the Ph.D. (2013) degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was a post-doctoral scholar (2014-2015) at the University of Michigan. His research interests include semiconductor micro- and nano-electro-mechanical systems for frequency control applications; microwave acoustics; and novel ferroic materials and devices. Tabrizian has received the DARPA Director's Fellowship Award (2021), a DARPA Young Faculty Award (2019), and an NSF CAREER Award (2018). He is an associate editor of the IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS) and Sensors and Actuators A: Physical. Tabrizian's research has resulted in more than 80 journal and refereed conference papers and 10 patents. Tabrizian and his students are recipients and finalists of multiple outstanding paper awards at top-tier conferences such as IEEE MEMS, IEEE IFCS, IEEE IEDM, IEEE NEMS, and Transducers.