Innovative projects

Citation

Rudall, B.H. (2001), "Innovative projects", Kybernetes, Vol. 30 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2001.06730baa.006

Innovative projects

Innovative projects

1. 1.

   United Kingdom research programme

   The United Kingdom research initiatives into electronic devices and circuits based on silicon germanium (SiGe) has received further encouragement from the nation's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). This follows on from the successful first phase of its "SiGe initiative". Some £5.6 million has been awarded to the two major groups involved with the programme so that they can continue with their research. Over £11 million has, to date, been invested into research on electronic devices and circuits based on SiGe. The programme of research was initiated in 1997 and since then SiGe has built into a successful activity involving industry and has attracted many forms of investment. It is reported that phase one of this activity is close to completion and has already made major improvements in semiconductor device performance.

   It is reported that leading edge work has been carried out on SiGe bipolar devices including carbon in the structure, and that on SiGe CMOS, where P-channel performance equivalent to that of N-channels has been published.

   Professor Peter Saul of Saul Research, who is a consultant who has the task of focussing the initiative for the research community, says that:

   In high-speed digital circuits, on a given process geometry, you're probably going to be able to operate two to three times faster with this, compared with conventional technology.

   The work has received great impetus from the Information Technology & Computer Science (IT&CS) and Materials which supported further research following a successful SiGe community workshop held in November 1999. A report of this meeting says that:

   The event gathered academics and industrialists interested in SiGe related to its growth, characterisation, device design and fabrication and provided an excellent opportunity to foster dialogue between academic researchers and users from industry.

   It was possible to gauge the nature and scope of SiGe research worldwide ancl compare it with the UK. There were presentations from key industrialists and the participants benefited from hearing about current developments across a wide field of activity.

   The conclusion drawn from this meeting was that a further phase of research would be timely, so to provide a process that would enable co-ordination between existing participants and to encourage new entrants, Professor Saul brokered discussions with potential academic researchers and commercial users to generate a well-balanced portfolio of projects.

   The two phases of the work involves:

   Phase 1 – includes two large groups – HMOS (high performance metal-oxide semiconductor) and HBT (Heterojunction bipolar transistor). These groups came back with the projects for the following phase.

   Phase II – which was subject to peer review, resulting in a recommendation of funding for both the projects.

   As a result the HMOS group has been awared £4.3 million and the HBT group £1.3 million. The groups hold regular project meetings to make sure the research runs smoothly. Matters such as intellectual property (IP) are being discussed and as well as the means to protect it.

   There appears to be little doubt that SiGe technologies, especially BiCMOS form, will dominate future designs in the near to medium term. We are informed that in particular the technology makes new radio frequency circuits possible. Other results and applications will no doubt be forthcoming and contribute to this important area of research and development.

   Further information about the programme is available from: Professor Peter’Saul. E-mail: peter@saulresearch.co.uk; EPSRC – Tel: +44 (0)1793 444343; E-mail: chris.nott@epsrc.ac.uk

2. 2.

   Carbon nanofabrics projects

   Researchers believe they have found a way to make the "everlasting" fabric. Dr Ray Baughman, Honeywell International New Jersey, USA, writing in Science(November 2000) describes the new work:

   Scientists are fascinated by nanotubes, filaments of pure carbon less than one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair which have unparalleled strength – higher than any other known material, and are "spectacularly damage-resistant". But the problem was to find a way to assemble trillions of these nanotubes into long fibres that preserved these extraordinary properties.

   It is reported that now Dr Brigitte Vigolo and her colleagues at the universities of Bordeaux and Montpellier, France, have created the first spinning process to make fibres from nanotubes. The report says that:

   They assembled the fibres by dispersing nanotubes – which look like soot – in a detergent solution, and injecting this solution into a flowing stream of polymer solution. The nanotubes condense out of the polymer flow, which aligns them into ribbon-like fibres.

   A spokesperson for the research team says that basically our fibres are like hairs and they consist of dense assemblies of trillions of aligned nanotubes. The researchers say that:

   The fibres can be strongly bent without breaking, and even tied into knots. Long and ultra-strong nanotube fibres could be used as artificial muscles, wires and superstrong materials.

   Although the fibres are not as strong as the individual nanotubes, we think it will be easy to make them realise their theoretical potential, up to 100 times stronger than iron and six times lighter.

   The French team believes that by building on its discoveries, it will be possible to devise an economically viable process for spinning strong nanotube fibres. All sorts of applications will then follow. As to producing the "everlasting" garment, this is, they claim, becoming closer to reality. At the present stage of development such a garment would be very costly, since nanotubes now cost £350 per gram. Even so, the researchers believe that the potential applications of carbon nanofabric are both promising and exciting.

B.H. RudallNorbert Wiener Institute and The University of Wales, UK