PFI-RP: Novel Alloy Materials and Device Designs for 5G Wireless Communications

该创新研究伙伴关系（PFI-RP）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力通过开发新材料将无线通信设备的工作频率范围扩展到5G运营的下一阶段。更高的工作频率意味着更高的数据速率，但目前主导无线手机市场的紧凑、高效、低成本的声学组件受到其核心材料的基本特性的限制。现有材料的替代品体积庞大，效率低下，并且在数据传输过程中会产生不可接受的加热，导致电池快速耗尽。将这些声学元件扩展到6 - 10 GHz区域需要高通量筛选与协同设计方法相结合，以快速有效地开发新材料，使其具有可快速用于新型器件设计和芯片制造的性能。该项目以非线性合金行为的基本材料概念为基础，将这些组件扩展到新兴的5G通信频段。拟议的项目将解决如何使用我们最近开发的工具从第一性原理（包括多尺度化学排序）精确计算复杂合金的声速这一开放的科学问题。在这些工具的指导下，我们将利用高通量实验筛选能力来制造比现有选择具有更高声速的新型压电合金。这一过程将增加我们对反应溅射高能非平衡制备和复杂多阳离子和同时多阴离子合金机电性能的理解。这些新构思的压电材料具有提高声速和降低介电常数的特性，其开发和性能优化将与新型器件结构相结合，以演示6 GHz工作频率下的声学谐振器。新材料的协同设计将使其具有良好的性能，谐振器可以利用这些特性，这将为6 GHz工作的无线手机带来紧凑、低成本、高效率的滤波器。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation – Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project extends the operational frequency range of wireless communication devices to the next stage of 5G operation by developing new materials. Higher operating frequencies mean higher data rates, but the compact, efficient, and low-cost acoustic components that dominate the wireless handset market today are limited by the fundamental properties of the materials at their core. The current alternatives to the existing materials are bulky, inefficient and lead to rapid battery drain with unacceptable heating during data transmission. Extending these acoustic components into the 6 – 10 GHz region requires a high throughput screening combined with co-design approach to rapidly and efficiently develop new materials with enabling properties that can be rapidly leveraged by novel device designs and chips manufacturing. This project builds from fundamental materials concepts of non-linear alloy behavior to extend these components into emerging 5G communication bands.The proposed project will address the open scientific question of how to accurately compute the speed of sound of complex alloys from first principles, including multi-scale chemical ordering, using tools that we have recently developed. Guided by such tools, we will leverage high throughput experimental screening capabilities to fabricate new piezoelectric alloys with higher acoustic velocities than existing options. This process will increase our understanding of the energetic non-equilibrium fabrication via reactive sputtering and electromechanical properties of complex multi-cation and simultaneously multi-anion alloys. Development and property optimization of these newly conceived piezoelectrics having increased acoustic velocity and reduced permittivity will be coupled to novel device structures to demonstrate acoustic resonators at 6 GHz operating frequencies. Co-design of the new materials that exhibit enabling properties and the resonators that can leverage said properties will lead to compact, low-cost, high efficiency filters for wireless handsets for 6 GHz operation.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.