Collaborative Research: FuSe: Interconnects with Co-Designed Materials, Topology, and Wire Architecture

非技术描述：这个跨学科的研究项目的重点是合成新材料，具有高导电性的小电线。这一点很重要，因为功能更强大、更节能的计算机需要更小的导线来连接开关（晶体管）和存储元件。关键的想法是使用一种新型的材料，这种材料的电子不能在导线表面散射。该项目发现了这些新材料，并开发了将其合成和集成到计算机芯片制造中的方法，从而促进了从智能手机到大型数据中心等设备中使用的更强大、更节能的芯片。该项目包括一个多方面的教育和劳动力发展计划，涉及历史上黑人学院和大学以及少数民族服务机构的教育领导人，研究密集型大学的科学家以及半导体行业公司的开发工程师。这些举措旨在提高美国半导体芯片制造业劳动力的多样性、质量和数量。技术简介：该项目旨在控制新型高导电性电互连材料的合成，并与后端电介质共同设计导体材料，以在未来集成电路中实现优于现有铜技术的导电性优势。这涉及利用拓扑金属中的散射免疫表面输运，通过应变和介电工程调整其费米能级以获得最大拓扑效应，并实现晶体取向/手性控制以获得拓扑和各向异性金属中的高电导率。该项目采用了互补的新型合成方法，高通量表征，从头计算电子传输计算，以及应变，介电和接触工程的紧密集成。更具体地说，它包括使用互补技术合成拓扑和定向互连导体以原型化用于未来半导体工业的几类材料，共同设计晶体生长取向和手性与电子传输以利用有利的传导，包括外尔半金属中的散射免疫单向表面传输，以及通过弹性应变将费米能级调整到外尔节点。该项目由历史上黑人学院和大学本科生项目（HBCU-UP）共同资助，该奖项旨在加强HBCU的STEM本科教育和研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值进行评估，更广泛的影响审查标准。

Nontechnical description:This interdisciplinary research project focuses on the synthesis of new materials which have a high electrical conductivity for small wires. This is important because more powerful and energy-efficient computers require smaller wires to connect the switches (transistors) as well as the memory elements. The key idea is to use a new type of materials for which electrons cannot be scattered at the wire surfaces. The project discovers such new materials and develops methods for their synthesis and integration into computer chip manufacturing, facilitating more powerful and energy-efficient chips used in devices ranging from smartphones to large data centers. The project includes a multifaceted education and workforce development initiative, involving education leaders from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions, scientists from research intensive universities, and development engineers from companies in the semiconductor industry. These initiatives are designed to increase diversity, quality, and quantity of the USA-based semiconductor chip manufacturing workforce. Technical description:This project aims to control the synthesis of new high-conductivity electrical interconnect materials and to co-design the conductor materials with the back-end dielectric to achieve a conductivity advantage over existing Cu technology in future integrated circuits. This involves exploiting scattering-immune surface transport in topological metals, tuning their Fermi level through strain and dielectric engineering for maximum topological effects, and achieving crystal orientation/chirality control for high conductivity in topological and anisotropic metals. The project uses a tight integration of complementary novel synthesis methods, high-throughput characterization, ab-initio electron transport calculations, as well as strain, dielectric and contact engineering. More specifically, it includes synthesis of topological and directional interconnect conductors using complementary techniques to prototype several classes of materials for the future semiconductor industry, co-design crystal growth orientation and chirality with electron transport to leverage favorable conduction including scattering-immune unidirectional surface transport in Weyl semimetals, and tuning of the Fermi level to Weyl nodes by elastic strain.This project is co-funded by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), which provides awards to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs.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.