Phase II IUCRC at North Carolina State University: Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics

介电和压电学中心(CDP)是北卡罗来纳州立大学(NCSU)和宾夕法尼亚州立大学(PSU)之间的联合产业/大学合作研究中心(IUCRC)，在谢菲尔德大学设有国际分支机构。介电和压电材料可以转换和存储能量，在现代电子产品中随处可见，这些材料支撑着大多数交通、通信、国防和医疗技术。CDP的目标是：1.提高对介电材料和压电材料及其器件集成的基本认识；2.发现支持创新技术进步的变革性介电材料和压电材料，并将这种技术转移到支持新产品和新工艺的领域；3.教育学生和博士后学者成为研究界的领导者并创造长期的技术影响；4.开发独特的测量、表征和建模基础设施以支持该行业；5.促进与其他组织的战略耦合，以扩大科学影响和技术转让；6.成为国际公认的电容式和压电材料科学、技术和集成领域的卓越中心。在每一步，CDP的教职员工都与工业界和国家实验室成员密切合作，以推动介电和压电材料的最新发展。CDP研究开发新材料、新的计量方法、新的加工方法，以及对介电和压电材料的新的科学理解，包括生命周期分析。研究组合包括以下项目：1.用于极端环境的电容器，以满足汽车、电力电子和航空航天/国防系统等应用领域对提高电压和工作温度的需求；示范性研究课题包括在有湿度的情况下介质降解动力学的量化。2.用于超声和精密驱动的压电材料，包括研究非均匀应力对多层压电器件破裂和失效的作用；3.电动汽车和可穿戴电子设备的高能量密度电容器，包括用于制造高比表面积电容器的新型分子层沉积技术的研究。4.用于可折叠和可拉伸电子设备的低温和柔性基板的介电材料，包括用于印刷介电设备的新方法。5.用于5G通信的非线性和高频介质，包括高可靠性集成可调电容器。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics (CDP) is a joint industry/university cooperative research center (IUCRC) between North Carolina State University (NCSU) and the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), with an international affiliate site at The University of Sheffield. Dielectric and piezoelectric materials, which can transduce and store energy, are ubiquitous in modern electronics that underpin most transportation, communication, defense and medical technologies. The goals of the CDP are to: 1. Improve the fundamental understanding of dielectric and piezoelectric materials and their device integration; 2. Discover transformative dielectric and piezoelectric materials that support innovative technology advancements and transfer this technology to support new products and processes; 3. Educate students and postdoctoral scholars to become leaders in the research community and create long-term technical impact; 4. Develop unique measurement, characterization, and modeling infrastructure to support the industry; 5. Catalyze strategic coupling with other organizations to expand scientific impact and technology transfer; 6. Become the internationally recognized center of excellence in the science, technology, and integration of capacitive and piezoelectric materials. At each step, CDP faculty work closely with industry and national laboratory members to advance the state-of-the-art in dielectric and piezoelectric materials.CDP research develops new materials, new metrology methods, new processing methods, and new scientific understanding of dielectric and piezoelectric materials, including lifecycle analysis. The research portfolio includes projects on: 1. Capacitors for extreme environments to address the need for increased voltages and operation temperatures in application areas such as automotive, power electronics, and aerospace/defense systems; exemplary research topics include quantification of dielectric degradation kinetics in the presence of humidity. 2. Piezoelectric materials used in ultrasound and precision actuation applications, including research on the role of inhomogeneous stresses on cracking and failure in multilayer piezoelectric devices 3. High energy density capacitors for electric vehicles and wearable electronics, including research on novel molecular-layer deposition techniques for producing high-surface-area capacitors. 4. Dielectrics for low-temperature and flexible substrates for foldable and stretchable electronics, including novel approaches for printed dielectric devices. 5. Non-linear and high frequency dielectrics for 5G communications, including high-reliability integrated tunable capacitors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.