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集中在合成具有高导电性的小导线的新材料上。这一点很重要，因为功能更强大、能效更高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，对于这种材料，电子不能在导线表面散射。该项目发现了这种新材料，并开发了将它们合成并整合到计算机芯片制造中的方法，促进了更强大、更节能的芯片用于从智能手机到大型数据中心的各种设备。该项目包括一个多方面的教育和劳动力发展倡议，包括来自历史上的黑人学院和少数族裔服务机构的教育领导人，来自研究密集型大学的科学家，以及来自半导体行业公司的开发工程师。这些举措旨在增加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：该项目旨在控制新的高导电性电气互连材料的合成，并与后端介质共同设计导体材料，以实现在未来集成电路中相对于现有铜技术的导电性优势。这包括利用拓扑金属的散射免疫表面传输，通过应变和介电工程调节它们的费米能级以实现最大的拓扑效应，以及实现拓扑金属和各向异性金属的高导电性的晶体取向/手性控制。该项目采用了互补的新合成方法、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，为未来的半导体工业制作几类材料的原型，与电子传输共同设计晶体生长方向和手性，以利用有利的传导，包括散射免疫的Weyl半金属表面传输，以及通过弹性应变将费米能级调节到Weyl节点。该项目由历史上的黑人学院和大学本科生项目(HBCU-UP)共同资助，该项目提供奖励，以加强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优势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.