UCLA Engineering Leads New Hybrid Wireless Testbed Project

Date: October 2003
Contact: Marlys Amundson ( marlysa@support.ucla.edu )
Phone: 310-206-0540

Last fall, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science a grant worth nearly $18 million over five years to establish a new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) that will focus on developing cost-effective nanomanufacturing technologies by working closely with industry. Five other institutions are partnering with UCLA on the Center: University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; University of California, San Diego; University of North Carolina at Charlotte; and HP labs.

The Center for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing (SINAM) will combine fundamental science and technology in nanomanufacturing, transforming laboratory science into industrial applications in nanoelectronics and biomedicine. SINAM’s integrated research and education platform will have wide and profound impacts on our lives through applications in computing, telecommunication, photonics, biotechnology, health care, and national security. SINAM also will establish an industrial consortium to build strategic partnerships with leading companies and government laboratories.

According to SINAM Director Xiang Zhang, the promise that nanotechnology holds for industries ranging from telecommunications to health care to national defense has largely been held back by the lack of manufacturing platforms that allow complex nanoengineered products and systems to be adopted on a mass scale.

“A whole host of nano-scale devices that are being developed in labs across the country have not been able to reach their maximum potential because we lack the materials and the tools to manufacture them in a cost-effective way,” said Zhang, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in UCLA's School of Engineering and member of the California NanoSystems Institute. “We want to bridge the gap between scientific research and economically feasible manufacturing solutions. Our research team combines world class researchers in top down and bottom up manufacturing technologies and system engineering, and we hope to have a major impact in the technology revolution.”

The Center has named electrical engineering professor Eli Yablonovitch, a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, as co-director, and Dr. Cheng Sun will serve as the acting chief operating officer.

SINAM plans to develop cost-efficient and reliable methods of lithography, the photography-like technique that uses light to transfer images onto a substrate during the manufacture of small-scale devices. Computer chip-makers, for example, use this process to manufacture microprocessors. The ability to manufacture smaller, more functional microprocessors is largely dependent on the size of light wavelengths during the lithography process - the smaller the wavelength, the smaller the chip.

Engineers and scientists in SINAM hope to introduce lithography techniques that will make the manufacture of nanodevices with dimensions smaller than 20 nanometers not only possible, but also economically feasible. The current industry standard is roughly 100 nanometers.

SINAM researchers propose a method called plasmonic imaging lithography, which continues to use light but at much smaller wavelengths. By shining light through a thin, metal slab to create an effect called surface plasma resonance, researchers can reduce a 600 nanometer wavelength to as little as one nanometer - the scale of x-ray wavelengths.

Another major SINAM goal is to develop three-dimensional nanomanufacturing technologies. With their greater surface area, a 3-D computer chip could store more processing power and have more efficient interconnects than its two-dimensional cousin.

“Consider how our system of highways developed,” said Sun. “As urban centers became more crowded and populated, engineers needed to find a more efficient way of laying down highways. The solution was to erect highways on top of other highways.” In the same way, Sun says chip-makers must begin to build up to take advantage of the greater surface area that such a chip design would provide.

SINAM researchers will also pursue the development of a number of engineered products, including a 3-D nano-photonic circuit for integrating optical communication and computing, and nano biosensors that would allow diseases to be diagnosed more quickly and more accurately.

“Technology will soon master the nano-world, just as we master the micro-world today,” said Yablonovitch. “There will be new microscopes, new nanofabrication technologies, and new applications in information technology and medicine. Our Center will help create these new nano-tools, and to build them into systems that will enable cost-effective nanomanufacturing.”

In addition, SINAM members are developing environmentally conscious nanomanufacturing methods, finding ways to reduce materials use and creating industrial processes that use less energy and produce less waste and pollution.

The Center also has launched an innovative graduate young investigator program in which graduate students identify a unique aspect of nanomanufacturing to explore with faculty members from two distinct fields of study. Initially, SINAM will award $30,000 in seed funding to one or two projects selected on the strength of the interdisciplinary proposals submitted by interested graduate students.

“We’re offering our graduate students the opportunity to be the ‘boss’ in driving their research - something no other institution is doing,” explained Zhang. “They select their own topic and will carry out the research with SINAM faculty.”

The Center will welcome its first set of student researchers into the SINAM labs this summer through a new research program for undergraduate and high school students. SINAM’s Associate Director for Education, Adrienne Lavine, is working closely with the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity, the Center for Academic and Research Excellence, and the chemistry department to leverage existing undergraduate programs and high school outreach resources on campus.

“At the undergraduate level, one of the goals of the Center, which actually mirrors the NSF’s goals, is to bring more students into the engineering pipeline, including members of typically underrepresented groups and women,” explained mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Lavine. “To train the best students we can who will replace engineers nearing retirement age, we need to expand the pool of potential engineering students. SINAM’s summer program will bring undergraduates and high school students into our labs to work closely with our faculty on innovative and exciting projects to spark their interest in the field.”

Researchers from the five campuses and HP Labs are working closely with other NESC members, including Rice and Columbia, to exchange ideas, leverage existing facilities and resources, and design collaborative research and educational projects.

“We are participating in discussions on the national level through the NSF to help develop nanomanufacturing standards,” noted Zhang. “The National Nano- technology Initiative is creating a road map for the future and we feel it is critical for SINAM to be involved.”

More than a dozen companies have joined SINAM’s industrial consortium, and Zhang also has formed partnerships with several government laboratories. SINAM administrators are working with their partners in industry to create a master intellectual property agreement for the Center to facilitate transition of new technologies into the marketplace.

SINAM also has built an international collaborative program involving academic and industrial nanotechnology groups from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The NSF grant provides roughly $2.8 million for the first year, and an additional $14.9 million over the next four years. The grant could be extended another five years, raising total funding to an estimated $40 million.

For more information on SINAM's activities, please visit http://www.sinam.ucla.edu.