About the Facilities
Nanofab: Cleanroom
NANOFAB CLEANROOM
The Nanofab Cleanroom comprises over 2,500-square feet of class 100 and 1,000 cleanroom space, with a host of advanced micro/nano fabrication tools, spanning the areas of lithography, etch, deposition, and metrology with capabilities to support processing from pieces to 8” wafers. The Nanofab has state-of-the-art capabilities that are unique in NYC area—such as atomic layer etch (ALE) of compound semiconductors; ion beam etch of magnetic materials with SIMS endpoint; and plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD)—enabling faculty to conduct cutting edge research in the area of AI and quantum hardware technologies.
Center: Cybersecurity
THE NYU CENTER FOR CYBERSECURITY
The NYU Center for Cybersecurity is an interdisciplinary academic and research institute dedicated to training the current and future generations of professionals while also shaping public discourse and policy decisions with both its leading-edge research and scholarship. The Center focuses on both meaningful real-world technology and conducts cutting-edge research into this all-important sector that impacts all of us. Since its founding, the Center has pioneered many secure AI hardware devices and monitors.
Makerspace: Prototyping
THE NYU TANDON MAKERSPACE
The NYU Tandon MakerSpace is a cutting-edge lab created to foster collaborative design projects. It features rapid prototyping and PCB production equipment, as well as advanced machining and testing capabilities. The MakerSpace is designed to support and encourage project-based learning at all levels and provides training and workshops on machine usage, prototyping skills, and design.
Wireless: Research Portfolio
THE NYU WIRELESS
The NYU Wireless research portfolio involves nearly 100 faculty and graduate students, and is continually working on a wide range of fundamental problems in the development of next generation wireless technologies — from basic devices, to fundamental knowledge of channels and systems, to the key issues facing networks, security, and applications. Key areas of research include terahertz communications and sensing; mobile edge networking and computing; millimeter wave (mmWave); terahertz (THz); and quantum nanodevices and circuits; 5G and 6G applications (such as robotics, UAVs, autonomous vehicles); machine learning; communication foundations; and 6G testbeds. NYU WIRELESS has a large industrial affiliate program with connections to many companies and start-ups that can use semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.
New York University is developing two new research facilities in Brooklyn, New York that are available to any potential partner in a regional semiconductor hub. One is a cutting-edge nanofabrication facility and another is a state-of-the-art THz measurement facility. These will fuel advanced research in quantum and THz electronics in the United States. These new facilities can also serve as training grounds for future semiconductor workers. This would be a perfect complement to the global-leading efforts for workforce development at Penn State (Osama Awadelkarim is the director of the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization.)
“These two cutting-edge research facilities at NYU support several Research Centers within NYU in the fields of Quantum and Communications,” Davood Shahrjerdi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering with NYU and director of the NYU Nanofabrication Facility, said. “A hallmark of these research centers is their strong connections with the semiconductor industry. Lastly, these research centers at NYU have well-established workforce development pipelines for educating the next generation of diverse engineers and researchers in the field of semiconductor manufacturing.” Shahrjerdi envisions that a regional hub featuring Penn State and other universities would create a synergy of capabilities around semiconductors, while a partnership with industry would help set the agenda.
The inter-university partnership is crucial for amplifying the unique strengths of different universities in accomplishing this mission, facilitating a closer collaboration and development of unified strategies toward the lab-to-fab translation of cutting-edge research on unconventional semiconductors,” Shahrjerdi said. “At the same time, the industrial partnership is crucial for understanding the needs of the semiconductor industry.” The future semiconductor hub in the mid-Atlantic would come at a crucial time, Shahrjerdi believes, not just because of the need to the United States to revitalize its chip industry, but also at a time when new technology is needed to move the field forward.
“The semiconductor industry is at a critical juncture as the conventional silicon transistor scaling is running out of steam,” he said. “The ideal hub will focus on radical scientific and technological innovations that can result in groundbreaking technologies with an emphasis on their translations into manufacturing settings. It will also have a strong workforce development component for training the next generation of engineers and researchers necessary for this next step.”