Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NANOSMART (NANO components for electronic SMART wireless systems)
Reporting period: 2020-07-01 to 2023-02-28
The objective is to develop technology for future generation, smart monolithic Transmit/Receive. NANOSMART addresses this need by developing a new technology based on CNT and 2D material. NANOSMART develops unique concepts such as an antenna, NEMS for RF switching, filters and FET technologies. Monolithic integration of all technologies mentioned above will provide a compact platform including new amplifier architecture, power management, RF switching and antennae on one monolithically integrated chip. Within the front-end IC, three sensor types will also be integrated to provide smart, autonomous system reaction and thus improve accuracy, power efficiency and real-time system health monitoring to ambient conditions. The two demonstrators are high-end radar and mass market IoT applications.
Currently, WP1 is finished and all the specifications for devices and demonstrator was transmitted to all partners for design and simulation activities. Regarding the material development, SHT and Chalmers improve the quality of CNT material with different growth condition optimization. Totally, there are 50 pieces of samples are tested and grown to study the behaviour of Fe catalyst influenced by annealing condition, the different length of CNT bundles were also obtained from 30 to 700 μm. In parallel, they work also on the graphene transfer in order the best quality of graphene. TNI work on the HfS2 growth by a combination of ALD and CVD. ICN has worked in parallel on MoS2 growth by MOCVD. HfS2 characterization was performed by TNI and an investigation of air exposure effect was done using Micro Raman spectroscopy and shown a real impact on the material. HfS2 films will require in-situ passivation immediately after the growth with an Al2O3 layer. Finally, TNI have investigated the methodology for assessing the uniformity of 2D material on large substrates (4-inch). The potential of spectroscopic ellipsometry has been explored. SHT and Chalmers have started a study to determine the mechanical properties of CNT produced during the project. We used a TEM equipment to measure the crystallinity of CNTs and extracted their Young’s modulus and we obtained a value of 75GPa. Regarding, the CNT FET, new Poisson-Schrödinger solver has been developed by UNIVPM, with a user-friendly MATLAB interface, and integrating a COMSOL kernel as supporting FEM solver and will make the simulation of CNT FET easier. The fabrication is ongoing.Regarding the CNT antenna, a study leads by ESCPCI on chemical potential influence in order to be able to predict EM conductivity change in frequency under voltage bias conditions and a design has been proposed. Then, TRT has determined a process flow for fabrication. The feasibility has been demonstrated. The characterization of the Multilayered graphene electromagnetic conductivity using a contactless technique avoiding anechoidal environment. Thanks to horn antennas electromagnetic excitation, material impedance in both TM and TE modes can be extracted allowing the identification of material permittivity and conductivity with anisotropic behavior checking. First measurement on samples processed by TRT/SHT revealed good agreement with theory where a negative imaginary part of conductivity is detected in the 40-60 GHz frequency band. For filter, IMT has worked on the design and a low pass, band pass and high pass filter has been designed taking account the technological constraint. TRT has worked on optimization of the IDT in order to improve the device performances. In parallel, we optimize the e-beam writing strategy to improve the uniformity of the structure. Finally, we have realized a CNT filter following the design obtained on WP2. The first characterization has been done by IMT and the result were very close to the simulation. The tuning effect is not significant due to the non-uniform CNTs growth and need to be optimized. Regarding the switch, TRT work in parallel on three different structures: DC Switch for a better understanding of the switching, RF switch to demonstrate the first switching on RF NEMS and a proof of concept for a new generation of RF NEMS. DC and RF switches has been fabricated.The simulation for humidity sensors based on MoS2/different metal nanoparticles composite as sensing elements using COMSOL Multiphysics was done by ICN2. The fabrication leads by ICN2, TMDs, such as MoS2 or WS2, have been identified as promising candidates for sensing application and nanoparticles of metals, such as Ag, Au and Cu, were added to improve the sensitivity and stability of the sensor. All the process in order to obtain MoS2 sheet has been optimized and first components has also been fabricated for measurement. A homemade humidity sensing setup was used to investigate the MoS2 - and WS2 based humidity sensors against a commercial humidity sensor (HIH-5031-001). The results have been shown an interesting behaviour and are promising. IMT and FORTH have designed the RF sensor based on a detector formed by antenna (bow-tie) integrated with a MIM (metal-insulator-metal) diode where the dielectric is HfO2 with thickness of few nm. Regarding, the temperature sensor based on CNT, the fabrication process has been optimized by FORTH in particular the thickness of CNT deposition to obtain a comparable resistance between the two varieties of CNTs.
Finally, NanoSmart logo has been chosen and a project website has been activated. In parallel, the result of the project has been presented on 10 conference and three papers has been published. From management point of view, six projects meeting, 1 technical meeting, 1 conf call for WP2, 2 conf call meeting to organize the work related to the COVID-19 context have been organized. All the deliverable has been submitted in time
Finally, NanoSmart logo has been chosen and a project website has been activated. In parallel, the result of the project has been presented on 10 conference and three papers has been published. From management point of view, six projects meeting, 1 technical meeting, 1 conf call for WP2, 2 conf call meeting to organize the work related to the COVID-19 context have been organized. All the deliverable has been submitted in time
We attempts to provide a full technology based on CNT and 2D materials and bring new components such as miniaturized antenna, a series of temperature, relative humidity and RF radiation sensors, next generation FETs optimised for noise, power and switching, and NEMS. At the circuit level, we expect to bring an unprecedented level of complexity into monolithic integration, combining all components mentioned above into a transmission and reception RF monolithic platform able to provide compact functionality. The expected result is a fully monolithic smart Rx/Tx module.Regarding the impact, NANOSMART will develop a new platform for complex analog circuit design, by using new technologies allowing these modules to work at very high frequencies. NANOSMART-developed technology will also supply connected devices with lighter, smaller and more compact T/R modules, hence addressing a broad application spectrum especially for mobile and on-board applications. These improvements will impact the entire semiconductor value-chain through both increased production and demand. This will therefore greatly increase the competitiveness of European nano-electronics supply industries. The NANOSMART consortium involves major stakeholders of the nano-electronics supply chain, which are thus best positioned to anticipate the cost-effective introduction of these new technologies and future products on the market. This will also benefit other strong European industrial domains such as automotive, energy and automation and contribute to create new high growth opportunities in related applications areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT).