EAGER: SHF: Three-Dimensional Electronics Integration Facilitated by Molecular Assembly

对于像计算机和智能手机这样的电子设备的生产，传统的光刻技术提供了无误差的电路，但它们在关键方向上的发展受到其固有的二维性质的限制。另一方面，生物结构本质上是三维的，然而它们的易错自组装过程要求生物系统利用容错架构。这个项目将使用通过分子识别进行自组装的材料来模拟生物学，用于电子设备的程序化制造。这种制造方法可能会在信息处理、计算机和通信应用中产生革命性的技术。这项研究可以提高某些计算的速度和能源效率，并降低其生产成本。该项目将提供研究生、本科生和博士后水平的跨学科研究培训。通过应用基于亲和肽的组装技术和结构DNA纳米技术来创造具有宏观尺度尺寸和纳米尺度特征分辨率的生物启发材料，该项目将产生独特的，电子活性的，具有完整网络的材料，预计将显示有趣的非线性行为。这些材料具有在具有极高连接性的新型三维集成电路中使用的潜力，这些电路被预测为显示有用的电行为，并且将被开发用于计算、通信、信号处理和控制应用。

For the production of electronic devices like computers and smart phones, conventional lithographic techniques provide error-free circuits, but their development in critical directions is limited by their inherently two-dimensional nature. On the other hand, biological structures are inherently three-dimensional, however their error-prone self-assembly procedures require biological systems to utilize error-tolerant architectures. This project will mimic biology using materials that self-assemble by molecular recognition for programmed fabrication of electronic devices. Such fabrication methods could potentially generate revolutionary technology in information processing, computer, and communications applications. This research could increase the speed and energy efficiency of some computations and decrease the cost of their production. The project will provide interdisciplinary research training at the graduate, undergraduate, and postdoc levels. Participation by under-represented groups will be pursued and encouraged at all levels including through Project SEED for high school students.By applying techniques of affinity peptide-based assembly and structural DNA nanotechnology to create bioinspired materials with macro-scale dimensions and nano- scale feature resolution, this project will generate unique, electronically-active, materials with integral networks that are expected to display interesting non-linear behaviors. These materials have potential for use in novel three-dimensionally integrated circuits with extremely-high connectivity that are predicted to display useful electrical behaviors and will be developed for computation, communications, signal processing, and control applications.