Semiconductors, Fascinating Materials of the Third Industrial Revolution (and Possibly the Fourth One)

Jean-Pierre Leburton

G. Stillman Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Urbana Il 6180, USA

Abstract

In this talk I will briefly review a few historical milestones in the rise of semiconductor materials in the digital revolution of the end of the 20th century. I will review the properties of these fascinating materials by emphasizing their versatility and flexibility, and will describe a couple of examples of their most salient applications in everyday life to emerge on Moore’s law, and address the “end of the road” scenario for MOS technology. I will discuss revolutionary developments in material nanotechnology, which give rise to promising concepts in device electronics for the next generation of information processing systems. Finally, I will present a scenario that integrates biology with semiconductor nano-electronics for probing the electrical activity of DNA molecules, thereby providing a mean to identify electronically their molecular sequences with potential for new information storage, thereby opening the road to the fourth industrial revolution

Biography

Dr. Leburton joined the University of Illinois in 1981 from Germany, where he worked as a research scientist with the Siemens A.G. Research Laboratory in Munich. In 1992, he held the Hitachi LTD Chair on Quantum Materials at the University of Tokyo, and was a Visiting Professor in the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2000. He is involved with research in nanostructures modeling and in quantum device simulation. His present research interest encompasses non-linear transport in quantum wires and carbon nanotubes, and molecular and bio-nanoelectronics

Professor Leburton is author and co-author of more than 300 technical papers in international journals and books, and served in numerous conferences committees. In 1993 he was awarded the title of “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques “ by the French Government. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Physical Society (APS), the Optical Society of America (OSA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Electrochemical Society (ECS) and the Institute of Physics (IOP). He is also a member of the New York Academy of Science. In 2004 he was the recipient of the ISCS Quantum Device Award, and of the Gold medal for scientific achievement by the Alumnus association of the University of Liege, Belgium. He is a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Nanotechnology Council. In 2011 he was elected to Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium.

11/6，18:00-19:00,  lecture at ENG 100

Venue: Auditorium 105, Teaching Building A

11/8，15:00  lecture at ECE 200

Venue: Room A325, Teaching Building A