Faculty: Christina DiMarino (ECE), GQ Lu (ECE/MSE), Khai Ngo (ECE)

Expertise: Packaging for revolutionary advances in power electronics used in electric vehicles, aerospace, the electric grid, and defense systems.

Features: New packaging technologies, materials, and integration strategies are essential to extracting the benefits of advanced semiconductor devices (e.g., WBG)

Key Challenges:

• Electromagnetic compatibility for highspeed
  devices and high-density-integration
• Harsh environment operation and reliability
  for defense and transportation systems
• Material-device-packaging-circuit co-design

Faculty: Masoud Agah and Leyla Nazhandal (ECE)

Expertise: Field Portable and Wearable MEMS-enabled systems.

Applications:

• Environmental monitoring
• Disease diagnostics
• Monitoring substance adulteration
• Homeland security
• Quality Control

Key Challenges:

• Uniform functionalization of sensors
• Compact integration of fluidic and electronic components
• Minimal chip-to-chip variation

Faculty: Jeff Walling (ECE)

Expertise: Wideband, adaptive, linear and energy-efficient integrated circuits from mm-Wave to THz

Key Opportunities:

• Machine Learning/AI-based RFIC/mm-wave IC optimization
• Increase information rate, spectral- and energy-efficiency

Key Challenges:

• Low device gain, high passive losses
• High-speed, high bandwidth mixed-signal interfaces
• Coordination across large-scale arrays

Faculty: Paul Ampadu (ECE) and Leyla Nazhandali (ECE)

Expertise: Lightweight and low-power ICs. Secure and Resilient Network-on-Chip and System-on-Chip. Fault-attack resistant microprocessors.

Key Challenges:

• Energy-efficient yet function-complete Hardware
• Fast response times under HW complexity
• Hardware/Software Co-design

Secure-Resilient AI Chips: Key Challenges

• Identifying common AI primitives
• Narrowing prevalent AI applications
• Algorithms simplification for HW designs
• Effecting jointly secure-resilient AI chips

Other

• Internet-of-Things (IoT) chip
• 5G chip with J. Walling of ECE
• Hardware for Energy Systems security

Faculty: Linbo Shao (ECE)

Expertise: Integrated electro-optic and acousto-optic circuits on thin-film lithium niobate, quantum interconnects

Features: New semiconductors, e.g., integrated group III-V and group IV, wide-bandgap and ultrawide bandgap materials, drive the power device
and IC innovations.

Key Opportunities:

• High performance electro-optic devices e.g. modulator f > 100GHz, Vπ < 1V.
• Integrated hybrid circuits combining microwave, acoustic, and optical devices.
• Quantum information processing on silicon substrate

Key Challenges:

• Design, simulation, and testing of emerging microwave photonic devices
• Nanofabrication integration –multiple types of devices; lasers and photodetectors on chip
• Optical and microwave co-packaging

Faculty: Yuhao Zhang and Mantu Hudait (ECE)

Expertise: Power devices and ICs for revolutionary advances in power electronics used in electric vehicles, data centers, the electric grid, and
defense systems.

Features: New semiconductors, e.g., integrated group III-V and group IV, wide-bandgap and ultrawide bandgap materials, drive the power device
and IC innovations.

Key Challenges:

• Emerging power device & IC design, fabrication and characterization, with new semiconductors such as gallium oxide
• Power circuit design, development and manufacturing
• Introducing new semiconductors into silicon processing
• Machine-learning assisted material-device packaging-circuit co-design and semiconductor manufacturing.

Faculty: Dong Ha (ECE)

Expertise: Integrated circuits capable of operating at high temperatures.

Applications:

• Extreme environment sensing
• Oil and gas exploration
• Car/jet engine monitoring
• Spacecraft
• Elimination of heat sinks+ Oil and gas exploration
• Car/jet engine monitoring
• Spacecraft
• Elimination of heat sinks

Key Challenges:

• Fabrication of devices (such as SOI) to operate temperatures above 600 °C.
• Develop packages to operate at high temperatures.
• High temperature circuit design

Faculty: Yang (Cindy) Yi (ECE)

Expertise: Design and optimization of AI chips for real-time data analysis, time-series predictions, and dynamic control

Features:

• Scalable, robust, and energy-efficient 3D neuromorphic computing

Key Challenges:

• Energy efficient spiking neural network
• Robustness and scalability
• System prototype and emerging applications in cognitive computing and quantum computing