NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Energy Technologies (NASCENT)

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Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Energy Technologies (NASCENT)ERC Director: S.V. Sreenivasan Lead University: The University of Texas at AustinDomestic Universities: University of New Mexico, University of California at Berkeley Foreign Universities: Seoul National University, Indian Institute of ScienceThe mobile computing revolution is a disruptive paradigm that has up-ended the computing universe and promises to transform both the developed and developing worlds. Ubiquitous mobile computing on a global scale will demand low-cost, low-power computing devices delivering high data rates and high density data storage, form factor versatility, and access to long-lasting portable energy sources. The vision of the NASCENT Center is to establish a research, innovation and education ecosystem that will create the high-throughput, sustainable, reliable and versatile nanomanufacturing systems to revolutionize future generations of mobile computing and energy devices. The overall goals of the Center are to:- Invent nanomanufacturing systems for nanosculpting and for integrating abundantly available nanomaterials, such as exfoliated silicon, graphene, carbon nanotubes and organic semiconductors.- Conceptualize and design these nanomanufacturing systems to address the practical requirements of future generation mobile computing and energy devices.- Foster a culture of innovation that seeks to commercially deploy Center technologies through industrial practitioner partners and start-up companies.- Educate highly skilled and diverse leaders imbued with the Innovator's DNA.The Center will focus on five transformative high-speed nanomanufacturing systems and processes: 1) Nanosculpting; 2) Sustainable Semiconducting Material Processing; 3) Versatile Manufacturing for Mobile Device Form Factors; 4) Ink Jet Nanomaterial Deposition; and 5) Inline Nanometrology for Process Diagnostics and Control.The barriers the Center will overcome include: (i) lack of machines and processable materials for high-speed, large-area, low-defectivity nanomanufacturing and for nanometrology; (ii) absence of device architectures that are tailored to exploit strengths of promising nanomanufacturing processes; (iii) lack of validated models with quantified uncertainty to extrapolate prototype system performance to commercial scale, and reduced order models for real-time diagnostics, and control of nanomanufacturing systems. The Center will marry advanced nanoscience research with novel nanomanufacturing systems to overcome these barriers and accelerate the design, development, and deployment of versatile and innovative mobile computing devices.The intellectual merits of the proposed research are the creation of revolutionary manufacturing, devices, materials and modeling, including: 1) machine system architectures based on nano-precision mechanics, dynamics and control, in-line optical metrology, and integration of novel nanomaterials for high-throughput, wafer-scale and roll-to-roll nanomanufacturing; 2) design and demonstration of multi-bit STT-RAM, THz transceivers, non-planar cameras and hybrid advanced displays; 3) synthesis and integration of a wide array of novel nanomaterials and processes, from block co-polymers for self-aligned memory to exfoliated films of Si nanowires for flexible and high power density batteries; and 4) creation of predictive multi-scale computational tools with quantified uncertainty for process modeling, scale-up and real-time control of large area, high-speed nanomanufacturing processes.The broader impact of the Center is the development of critical nanomanufacturing infrastructure for mobile computing technologies which will impact, on a world-wide scale, all aspects of healthcare, education, commerce, communications, computing, and lifestyle. These nanomanufacturing advances will help create sustainable high-paying jobs in the US and will be supported by innovative human resource development and entrepreneurship activities. The Center will create a pipeline of diverse students to enter STEM fields and become creative global nanomanufacturing leaders through an educational program that emphasizes development of the Innovator's DNA, strong mentorship, focused technical and entrepreneurial coursework, interdisciplinary research.