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

非技术描述：这个跨学科研究项目的重点是合成具有高导电性的小电线新材料。这很重要，因为更强大、更节能的计算机需要更小的电线来连接开关（晶体管）以及存储元件。关键思想是使用一种新型材料，电子不会在导线表面散射。该项目发现了此类新材料，并开发了将其合成和集成到计算机芯片制造中的方法，促进从智能手机到大型数据中心等设备中使用更强大、更节能的芯片。该项目包括多方面的教育和劳动力发展计划，涉及历史悠久的黑人学院和大学以及少数族裔服务机构的教育领导者、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劳动力的多样性、质量和数量。技术描述：该项目旨在控制新型高电导率电互连材料的合成，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相对于现有铜技术的电导率优势。这涉及利用拓扑金属中的散射免疫表面传输，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，以及实现拓扑和各向异性金属中高电导率的晶体取向/手性控制。该项目紧密集成了互补的新颖合成方法、高通量表征、从头算电子传输计算以及应变、介电和接触工程。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，为未来半导体行业设计几类材料的原型，共同设计晶体生长方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。该项目由历史悠久的黑人学院和大学本科项目 (HBCU-UP) 共同资助，该项目提供奖项以加强 STEM 本科教育该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.