August 11th Distinguished lecture on 2D crystals for smart life

IEEE SCV Electron Devices Society Distinguished Lecture  on August 11th “2D Crystals for Smart Life

Speaker: Prof. Kaustav Banerjee, University of California, Santa Barbar

Abstract:

The experimental demonstration of graphene in 2004, a truly one-atom thick layer of carbon atoms, has opened up a window to the two-dimensional (2D) world of materials. Two common features shared by all 2D crystals are the atomic scale thickness, which leads to novel physics and interesting applications, and the pristine interfaces that potentially promise stable chemical, electrical, and thermal characteristics. Atomic scale thicknesses (few Å/layer) of 2D semiconducting crystals (such as MoS2 and WSe2) and their controllable precise band gaps as a function of number of layers also enable the scaling of electronic devices without inducing performance variations. Moreover, seamless planar synthesis and stacking of various 2D crystals can be exploited to build novel lateral and vertical heterostructures, respectively. This talk will highlight and discuss the prospects of such 2D crystals for designing low-power, low-loss, and ultra-energy-efficient active and passive devices targeted for designing next-generation green electronics needed to support Big Data from applications such as IoT/IoE and social media. It will also bring forward some applications uniquely enabled by 2D crystals, including sensors and flexible high-frequency electronics for improving quality of life, and discuss related challenges and opportunities.

Biography:

Kaustav Banerjee is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Nanoelectronics Research Lab at UC Santa Barbara. Initially trained as a physicist, he graduated from UC Berkeley with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1999. His current research focuses on the physics, technology and applications of low-dimensional materials such as graphene and other 2D materials for next-generation green electronics, photonics and bioelectronics.

Prof. Banerjee has made seminal contributions in nearly every aspect of nanoelectronics, and his ideas and innovations have played a decisive role in steering worldwide research. His research into low-power electronics, including 3D ICs and thermal-aware IC design, has found wide scale implementation in the semiconductor industry. His research group has also spearheaded the use of 2D materials for overcoming power dissipation and other fundamental challenges in nanoscale transistors, interconnects and sensors. Prof. Banerjee’s technical contributions have been recognized with numerous awards and honors including the prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award, presented to him in 2011 by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, for his outstanding contributions to nanoelectronics. Prof. Banerjee is a Fellow of IEEE and the American Physical Society, and the recipient of the 2015 Kiyo Tomiyasu Award, one of the highest-level awards given by IEEE.