The UNBC Physics Department invites Staff, Students, Faculty and the Public to the following presentation:

Title:                    Materials and Nanostructures for New Semiconductor Technologies

Speaker:             Dr. Patricia Mooney, Physics Department - Simon Fraser University

Date:                   Thursday, February 11, 2010

Time:                   2:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M.

Location:            5-174 (Library Building)

Abstract:When neutrons are taken out of atomic n

The amazing developments in computer and communications technologies during the last 40 years have been driven by advances in semiconductor technologies. Research on new semiconductor materials has resulted in microprocessor integrated circuits having more than two billion transistors, solid state lighting, including devices that emit blue or white light, and the ubiquitous mobile communications devices that we enjoy today. Our research focuses on novel semiconductor materials and structures, and contributes to the continuing evolution of semiconductor devices and circuits.

Two on-going research projects will be discussed. The first is a study of defects at SiO2/SiC interfaces, which are fundamental to SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), an emerging technology for applications in high temperature and high power environments such as automotive and aircraft engine control and electric power transmission. The presence of C in SiC and the much larger SiC bandgap energy results in a very high interface state density at SiO2/SiC interfaces compared to SiO2/Si interfaces. The interface state density can be modified by introducing nitrogen at the interface. We are investigating the properties of the interface defects and the effects of different methods of introducing nitrogen at the interface. A second project is the development of semiconductor substrates that have a surface lattice constant that is different from the lattice constant of the bulk crystalline semiconductor. Using standard semiconductor fabrication methods, we fabricate semiconductor nanostructures on the substrate surface to provide a different lattice constant without introducing defects that degrade semiconductor device performance.

Bio:

Dr. Patricia M. Mooney is Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Semiconductor Physics at Simon Fraser University. She joined the Physics department at SFU in 2005 after spending nearly 25 years as a Research Staff Member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. She received her PhD in solid state physics from Bryn Mawr College in 1972. Prior to joining IBM in 1980, Dr. Mooney was Assistant Professor of Physics at Hiram College (1972-74) and at Vassar College (1974-80). She was a Visiting Scientist in the Physics Department at the State University of New York at Albany (1977-78), at the Groupe de Physique des Solide de l’ENS, Université de Paris VII in Paris, France (1979-80), and at the Fraunhofer Institut für Angewandte Festkörperphysik in Freiburg, Germany (1987-88).

Dr. Mooney’s research has focused on the fundamental properties of defects and impurities in semiconductors and their effects on the electronic and structural properties of semiconductors and semiconductor devices. She has studied impurities in epitaxially grown III-V semiconductor films, most notably the DX center in AlGaAs, and also radiation- and process-induced defects in Si, Ge and GaAs. She has also investigated strain relaxation and dislocation formation mechanisms in lattice mismatched semiconductor heterostructures, the microstructure and electronic structure of strain-relaxed SiGe films and applications of SiGe/Si heterostructures for strained Si CMOS technology. Current research activities include studies of interface defects in SiO2/4H-SiC, defect states in GaAsBi and other novel III-V semiconductors, and defect-free strain relaxation of InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures. Dr. Mooney is the author or co-author of 180 publications, including review articles, a monograph and several book chapters and an inventor of 15 issued patents. She received two Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards and several Patent Awards from the IBM Corporation.

Dr. Mooney is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the Materials Research Society (MRS), the Electrochemical Society (ECS) and the Canadian Association of Physicists CAP). She is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), the Grant Selection Committee for NSERC’s Major Resources Support Program, and the CAP Brockhouse Medal Award Committee. She recently served on the APS Pake Prize Selection Committee, the APS Budget Committee, and the APS Executive Board and represented the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics on the APS Council. She is Past Chair of the Division of Materials Physics (DMP) of the APS and has served on other APS Committees. Dr. Mooney has served on the editorial boards of Physical Review B, Applied Physics Letters/Journal of Applied Physics, and the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics. She has also organized numerous scientific conferences and symposia.

Light refreshments