The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) leads a new $7 million research collaboration involving six universities to develop a new generation of electronic devices in partnership with an industry consortium. The Center for NanoFerroic Devices (CNFD) is one of the three centers sponsored by the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NRI is a consortium of companies in the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) seeking to propel technology beyond its current limits.
This joint research with five other universities will help transform basic university discoveries and knowledge into actual devices, in collaboration with industries. UNL is partnering with researchers at the University of California at Irvine; University of Wisconsin-Madison; University at Buffalo, SUNY; University of Delaware; and Oakland University. CNFD targets non-conventional, low-energy technologies based on innovative functional materials systems and conceptually novel approaches for device operation. Research involves exploration of properties, materials, structures, and phenomena non-traditional for existing technologies, such as magnetoelectricity, ferroelectricity, and spin dynamics.
Establishing of the CNFD is largely due to a long standing collaboration of the Nebraska MRSEC and NRI. Two MRSEC supplements have been supported by the NRI, and two research thrusts of the CNFD are the direct result of innovative concepts born and developed within the Nebraska MRSEC. The Nebraska MRSEC research addresses the NRI’s core objectives and has the potential for further strong and mutually beneficial interaction with the industrial companies participating in the NRI.
