In the cutting-edge field of nanotechnology, there is an ever-present need for the next generation of energy-efficient, high-performance components to advance the limits of possibility.
Two Florida Polytechnic University faculty members and their student research assistant focused their study on this area and presented it at a global symposium of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) held August 4-7 in Dallas, Texas.
“For our project the idea was how to come up with an energy-efficient electronic device that can consume less power,” said lead researcher Dr. Muhammad Ullah, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. “With conventional transistors it takes time for the current to go from on to off or off to on. We found negative capacitance-based transistors can be one of the potential electronic devices that can lead in the future generation of computers.”
The 2019 IEEE 62nd Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems attracted leading engineering professionals and academics from all over the world who discussed issues related to electronic circuits and systems, as well as recent innovations in the field.
Dr. Emad Fouad, a Florida Poly physics instructor, and junior mechanical engineering major Johnathan Bacharach traveled to the symposium to present a poster on their paper titled “A Review on Negative Capacitance Based Transistors.”
“This is kind of a new and hot topic so far – negative capacitance – because a lot of people didn’t even know about it, even in the engineering field,” Fouad said. “When people heard about this they got really surprised and they wanted to know more.”
The research concerns progress toward improving transistor operation and reliability through new technology and devices like the negative capacitance-based transistor. Ullah said current conventional transistor technology is at its limits for scale and performance and the new technology being researched has the potential to be more energy efficient and better able to allow for continued innovation in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology.
Bacharach, who graduated from Timber Creek High School in Orlando, Florida, assisted in researching and summarizing existing information on the topic, as well as creating diagrams and models of past work.
“It was an amazing experience,” Bacharach said. “I got to go view other posters and presentations and go to lectures, so I learned a lot of new things I didn’t know existed.”
Ullah said students who are interested in pursuing research with a faculty member at Florida Poly should start by performing well and participating in their classes while also building relationships with their professors.
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