DARPA funds Argonne-led project to develop technology for
advanced radar, communications systems
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ARGONNE, Ill. (June 23, 2008) — The Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is providing $1.4 million
to a Phase III research project led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Argonne National Laboratory to develop high-performance integrated diamond microelectro-mechanical
system (MEMS) and complementary
metal-oxide-semiconductor devices (CMOS) for radar and mobile communications
using an Argonne-developed and patented Ultrananocrystalline
Diamond (UNCD) film technology.
Argonne's program partners are Advanced
Diamond Technologies, Inc. (ADT),
Innovative Micro Technology (IMT), MEMtronics
Corp., Peregrine
Semiconductor,
the University of Pennsylvania and
Lehigh University.
The project's principal investigator and project manager is Derrick Mancini,
associate division director for facilities and technology at the Center
for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) at Argonne. The project's technical leader
is Orlando Auciello, a senior scientist in Argonne's Materials
Science Division and the
CNM,
and Anirudha Sumant, an assistant materials scientist in the CNM, is a major
contributor to the Argonne's part of the program.
DARPA, a U.S. Department of Defense organization that supports high-risk,
transformational research, is interested in the development of advanced phased-array
radar and communication systems for military and commercial applications. The
integration of capacitive radio frequency (RF) MEMS and CMOS devices will enable
rapid electronic steering of radar beams to substantially improve radar speed
and precision. Monolithic RF MEMS/CMOS device integration will also greatly
improve the multifunction performance of state-of-the-art wireless devices.
RF MEMS devices like resonators (tiny diving board-like structures at very
high frequencies) and switches (tiny membranes that establish or disconnect
electrical pathways) may substantially improve the functionality and performance
of RF and microwave systems.
"The UNCD film technology," Auciello said, "has the potential
to improve the reliability of MEMS switches because of unique combination of
properties such as resistance to adhesion between two surfaces in physical
contact that can lead to premature switch failure, and because of demonstrated
tunability of dielectric properties and leakage current. In addition, UNCD
film exhibits the highest Young's modulus – the measure of a material's stiffness
under stress – of any material being investigate for MEMS resonators, and is
currently the only technology that can produce diamond films at temperatures
less than or equal to 400 degrees Celsius. Both characteristics provide critical
parameters for producing resonators for very high frequency operations and
the integration of diamond MEMS with advanced microelectronics, respectively."
In the DARPA Phase II program, the Argonne-led team achieved several key goals:
- materials integration and processes to fabricate UNCD-based
resonators;
- integration of UNCD films with CMOS devices;
- demonstration of UNCD dielectric properties suitable for application
as low-charge/low-force of adhesion dielectric layer for RF capacitive
MEMS switches; and
- demonstration of UNCD-dielectric-based RF MEMS switches
that surpassed one-billion switching cycles with low (approximately 0.17-decibel)
insertion losses at about 10 gigahertz.
Argonne is the world leader in the fundamental and applied science of UNCD
film technology and works jointly with academia and industry to develop new
UNCD-based MEMS and other hybrid technologies, including the integration of
oxide piezoelectric and UNCD films that produced the lowest power piezoelectrically
actuated UNCD resonators and nanoswitches demonstrated today. The CNM currently
has the world's only microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition system for
growing UNCD films at less or equal to 400 degrees Celsius on up to 200-millimeter
wafers, located in a clean room environment for nanoelectro-mechanical systems
fabrication. The CNM provides the main expertise and infrastructure at Argonne
critical for the success of the DARPA Phase III program. UNCD is prized for
its exceptionally small grain size of 5 nanometers, which is thousands of times
smaller than grains in traditional microcrystalline diamond films.
Argonne's five research partners each bring specific interdisciplinary expertise
and capabilities that are critical to the success of the DARPA Phase III program.
- Advanced Diamond Technologies, a Romeoville, Ill.-based
Argonne spin-off company that commercializes UNCD, is the world leader
in the development and application of diamond films for industrial, electronic
and medical applications. ADT provides diamond film and materials integration
solutions to a variety of industry participants in diverse application areas.
ADT has developed a low-temperature process for producing UNCD films and
a number of wafer-scale products suitable for integration of UNCD with other
materials for MEMS applications, including diamond-on-silicon and diamond-on-insulator
wafers up to 200 millimeters in size with unprecedented property uniformity.
- Innovative Micro Technology manufactures MEMS devices,
and its overriding goal is to partner with companies to develop products
based on MEMS technology. IMT has the largest and best-equipped MEMS foundry
facility in the world providing full services from MEMS design to high-volume
manufacturing of MEMS devices, including drug delivery, biomedical implants,
microfluidics, inertial navigation, sensors, telephone/digital subscriber
line switching and RF devices (critical to the DARPA Phase III), among many
other devices. IMT will fabricate the RE MEMS switches for the DARPA Phase
III program.
- MEMtronics of Plano, Texas, is a privately held company
focused on the development and maturation of RF MEMS switching technology.
This technology is being incorporated into phase shifter and tunable filter
products targeted at a variety of military and commercial wireless and radar
applications. MEMtronics has designed and demonstrated some of the most advanced
RF MEMS switches to date— a critical component.
- Peregrine Semiconductor is a global leader of high-performance
RF CMOS devices. Peregrine's patented UltraCMOS™ process technology — enabled
by silicon on sapphire substrates — drives unprecedented levels of monolithic
integration throughout a broad portfolio of mixed-signal RF ICs. The UltraCMOS
process technology will drive the UNCD-based RF MEMS switches designed
by MEMtronics and fabricated by IMT in the Phase III program.
- University of Pennsylvania Professor Robert W. Carpick leads
a group that conducts world-class research on tribology and mechanical
properties of materials using novel atomic-force microscopy and surface science
tools. The university group will provide unique expertise and tools to characterize
the tribological and mechanical performance of UNCD-based MEMS.
Argonne National Laboratory brings the world's brightest scientists and engineers
together to find exciting and creative new solutions to pressing national problems
in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne
conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every
scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from
hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies
to help them solve their specific problems, advance America 's scientific leadership
and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60
nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago
Argonne, LLC for the U.S.
Department of Energy's Office
of Science.
For more information, please contact Angela Hardin (630/252-5501
or ahardin@anl.gov) at Argonne.
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