FuSe-TG: Co-design based Wide bandgap Semiconductor Research Center

该提案的目标是建立一个跨学科团队，该团队将确定微电子系统中宽带隙（WBG）半导体最重要的协同设计挑战和机遇，探索跨材料，器件，电路和集成技术的融合协同设计技术，以解决与未来半导体技术相关的不同垂直领域，并吸引和培训具有半导体行业相关技能的多元化劳动力。宽带隙半导体在功率、电压、效率和频率方面实现了高性能的新极限，并可以大大扩展硅微电子技术之外的性能和功能。上一节概述的劳动力培训计划将使来自不同背景的学生能够获得与半导体相关的培训。劳动力培训和研究对半导体行业的积极影响将在区域和国家两级产生积极的经济成果。宽带隙半导体可以创造具有真实的社会影响的技术，例如节能计算、高带宽通信以及未来的空间和核技术。这里提出的研究将有助于加速和实现其中许多成果。发展熟练的劳动力，从助理到博士级，精通协同设计的组织和技术方面，对于推进半导体技术至关重要，需要培训未来的劳动力，并提高现有劳动力的技能。该项目将为学生提供三种跨学科的体验式半导体工作经验，包括1）研究生研究协会（GRA），2）本科生研究经验（REU）和3）制造实习机会（MIO）。该项目将建立一个中心，以实现跨四个垂直领域的基于协同设计的研究-模拟/混合信号/RF，功率，极端环境，和光子学，以及三个跨领域的使能能力：材料/处理，电路设计和异构集成，以及与州，教育和行业合作伙伴的各种基础的劳动力培训。这里设想的中心将是一个广泛的大学-工业合作伙伴关系，专注于协同设计技术，以实现垂直集成的材料/器件/电路工程。这将实现更高的复杂性/功能性WBG系统，并有助于加速WBG与Si微电子的集成。拟议的工作将分三个明确定义的阶段进行，第一阶段是一系列行业讨论/访谈和挑战/构思研讨会，第二阶段是专注于个人探索性研究的小型工作组，第三阶段是垂直研讨会。最终目标将是创建一个模板，以建立一个广泛的跨学科中心，为宽带隙半导体器件，电路和系统。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持，通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The objective of this proposal is to build an interdisciplinary team that will identify the most important co-design challenges and opportunities for wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors in microelectronic systems, explore convergent co-design techniques across materials, devices, circuits and integration technologies to address different verticals relevant to future semiconductor technology, and attract and train a diverse workforce with skills relevant to the semiconductor industry. Wide bandgap semiconductors enable new limits for high performance in terms of power, voltage, efficiency, and frequency, and could greatly expand the performance and functionality beyond Si microelectronics. The workforce training plans outlined in the previous section will enable students from diverse backgrounds to get training relevant to semiconductor. The positive impact on semiconductor industry from both workforce training and research will have positive economic outcomes both regionally and nationally. Wide bandgap semiconductors can create technologies that have real societal impact, such an energy-efficient computing, high-bandwidth communications, and future space and nuclear technologies. The research proposed here will help to accelerate and enable many of these outcomes. The development of a skilled workforce versed in the organizational and technical aspects of co-design from associate to doctoral-level is critical for advancing semiconductor technologies and needs to train the future workforce and upskill / reskill the existing workforce. The proposed work will expand three interdisciplinary, experiential semiconductor workforce experiences for students, including 1) Graduate Research Associateships (GRA), 2) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), and 3) Manufacturing Internship Opportunities (MIO).The proposed work will enable the formation of a center to enable co-design based research across four verticals – analog/mixed-signal/RF, power, extreme-environment, and photonics, and three cross-cutting enabling capabilities: materials/processing, circuit design, and heterogeneous integration, and workforce training in engagement with a diverse base of state, educational, and industry partners. The center envisioned here will be a broad university-industry partnership to focus on co-design techniques to enable vertically integrated materials/device/circuit engineering. This will enable higher complexity/functionality WBG systems, and help to accelerate the integration of WBG with Si microelectronics. The proposed work will be done in three well-defined phases, starting with a series of industry discussions/interviews, and challenge/ideation workshops in Phase 1, smaller task forces focused on individual exploratory research in Phase 2, and vertical-focused workshops in Phase 3. The final goal will be to create a template to establish the a broad interdisciplinary center for wide-bandgap semiconductor devices, circuits, and systems.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.