STTR Phase I: CMOS-Compatible Oxide Films for Tunable Microwave Technology

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是降低射频硬件的成本，使物联网应用更广泛地采用新一代移动设备和服务。该项目有可能帮助许多行业转型，包括医疗保健监测和诊断、交通安全和基础设施、空气和水质量监测以及灾害预警和恢复工作，特别是在有线基础设施不足或不存在的情况下。该项目可能会消除硬件开发商寻求将射频可调谐性直接纳入其产品的设计限制。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目解决了材料选择和加工的长期挑战。目前可用的功能材料系列通常需要高温处理，不能直接纳入用于移动通信的电子设备的制造中，从而防止了方便和高效的频率调谐。在这个项目中，将采用多尺度材料设计、模拟、薄膜生长、可扩展工艺和性能测试的良好集成来生产和优化新型可调电介质材料的性能。该项目将产生高性能、与制造工艺兼容的可调器件，其中包含一种通过低得多的温度获得的新型介电薄膜材料。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to reduce the cost of RF hardware, enabling wider adoption of new generations of mobile devices and services for Internet of Things applications. The project has the potential to help transform a number of sectors, including medicine and healthcare monitoring and diagnostics, transportation safety and infrastructure, air and water quality monitoring, and disaster warning and recovery efforts, particularly where wired infrastructure is inadequate or non-existent. The project will potentially remove design constraints for hardware developers seeking to directly incorporate RF tunability within their products.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses a persistent materials selection and processing challenge. Currently available families of functional materials typically require high-temperature processing and cannot be incorporated directly within the manufacturing of electronic devices for mobile communications, preventing facile and highly efficient tuning of frequencies. In this project, well-integrated multi-scale materials design, simulation, film growth, scalable processing and properties measurements will be employed to produce and optimize the performance of new tunable dielectric materials. The project will result in high-performance, manufacturing process-compatible tunable devices incorporating a new dielectric film material obtained through a much lower-temperature.