Chapter 1 Micro- and Nanoelectronics (Dan Dascălu)
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Chapter 1_Micro- and nanoelectronics Chapter 1 Micro- and nanoelectronics (Dan Dascălu) This chapter is devoted to the development in Romania of the domain of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, micro- and nanoelectronics, including nuclear electronics. We are following the trace of the doctoral school from the Faculty of Electronics and Communications at the Polytechnical Institute of Bucharest, scientific research and technological development on the Băneasa industrial platform, research and design activities in Romania after December 1989. The scientific career abroad of distinguished Romanian specialists is also presented. 1. Under the supremacy of the Moore’s law Micro- and nanoelectronics is name now used for the semiconductor industry (with crystalline silicon, as basic semiconductor material). The transistor (as well as the integrated circuit with transistors) is the basic element. The empirical Moore’s law1 is governing the continuous increase of the number of transistors per unit area of the integrated circuit. The importance of this law for the strategic development of the semiconductor industry (synchronizing the technological development with the opening of new markets) was recently reviewed by Andreas Wild2. The same author was also considering the present perspective of this industry in Romania3. 2. The school of semiconductor devices (Professor Mihai Dragonesque) 2.1 Mihai Drăgănescu as professor and doctoral supervisor (Gheorghe Brezeanu) At the beginning of sixties, the Chair for Vacuum Tubes, Transistors and Electronic Circuits from the Electronics Faculty of the Polytechnical Institute of Bucharest was headed by professor Tudor Tănăsescu, corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, also technical director of the Institute for Nuclear Physics (IFA). Unfortunately, he died in 1961, sixty years old. The follower as the head of the Chair (until 1990)4 was Mihai Drăgănescu (Fig. 2.1). He was also the supervisor of numerous Ph. D. students (starting 1966). As head of the school of semiconductor devices, his activity was extensively presented in a recent volume (in Romanian) 5. We are quoting (adapted from Romanian): He was a model, from the teaching point of view. His lectures6 have been crystal-clear and well documented, with an adequate mathematical support, with intuitive physical models and new results from literature, including his own research. In about 30 years he coordinated almost an equal number of Ph.D. students, the first generation of the Romanian school of Microelectronics (including members of the Romanian Academy, university professors or reputed specialists in Silicon Valley (Sun Disk, National Semiconductor etc.). Fig. 2.1 Acad. Mihai Drăgănescu 1 Moore, G.E., “Cramming More Components on to Integrated Circuits”, Electronics, 19 April, 1965, p. 114; republished in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 86, nr. 1, p. 82, January 1998. 2 Andreas Wild „Overview”, pp. 9- 22 in „Advances in micro- and nanoelectronics”, Publishing House of the Romanian Academy, 2018 (see http://www.link2nano.ro/acad/mne/volume27.html). 3 Micro- and Nanoelectronics in Romania from an international perspective, https://www.link2nano.ro/acad/FRMNE/docs/Chapter_10_en.pdf 4 Later, the Chair for Electron Devices, Circuits and Apparatus. 5 Școala românească de micro- și nanoelectronică (in Romanian, coordinator Dan Dascălu), Publishing House of the Romanian Academy, 2018. This volume will be frequently qouted below as SRMN 2018. 6 He was teaching Vacuum Tubes, Transistors and Electronic Circuits (1961-1965), Theory and Design of Integrated Circuits (1971-1972), Electron Devices and Circuits (1985-1989). 1 Chapter 1_Micro- and nanoelectronics „The electron processes...“7 is the first monograph about the transistor published in Romania (one of the first in the entire world). This volume includes an original theory about high injection levels in transistor. The Solid- State Electronics8 is a treatise about the physics of semiconductors, an essential lecture for Ph. D. students in microelectronics. The Functional Electronics9 is a new approach to the field. We are also stressing that Prof. Drăgănescu was contributing to the founding of the semiconductor industry and semiconductor research. Prof. Mihai Drăgănescu was the supervisor of 26 Ph. D. students10. Eight of them are now, in turn, supervisors at the Doctoral School of the Faculty of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (headed by Prof. Gheorghe Brezeanu). 2.2 The Doctoral School at the Faculty of Electronics and its contribution to the vocational training in microelectronics11 The doctoral school of the Faculty of Electronics was founded in 2012. It has more than 300 Ph.D. students, supervised by 50 professors in signal processing, information technology, computer science and engineering, communication networks, microelectronics, industrial electronics. In the first 6 years, more than 150 theses have been publicly presented. We are mentioning the cooperation with the National Institute for R&D in Microtechnologies, the later contributing with the infrastructure and competences to research in microsystems, specifically micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) in microfluidics, microwave and millimetre wave components, silicon carbide (SiC) devices etc. The interaction of Ph.D. students with ON Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies and Microchip was finalized with new analog integrated circuits in CMOS and BiCMOS technologies. 2.3 Research in the Department of Electron Devices, Circuits and Architectures. 2.3.1 Electron Devices and Circuits12. The research groups „Microwave semiconductor devices“ (1973) and „Physical Electronics“ (1990), respectively, have been set-up and headed by professor Dan Dascălu13. Professor Marcel Profirescu was in charge (since 1976) of the R&D Centre in Microelectronics (EDIL), with computer simulation and parameter extraction for the design of analog and digital systems. The research conducted by professor Adrian Rusu14 is related to Schottky diodes with lateral impurity gradient, electronically variable capacitor, breakdown of the MOS capacitor, breakdown of PN junctions with field electrode, unified electrical models for MOS transistors, Zener diodes and static induction transistor. We are also mentioning the following projects: the first mixed analog-digital CMOS integrated circuit in Romania (1987, Claudius Dan); Thermal analysis of electron devices and integrated circuits (Mircea Bodea, Andrei Silard15); Advanced Devices on Silicon Carbide and Diamond and Termination on the Oxide Ramp, coordinated by professor Gheorghe 7 M. Drăgănescu, Electronic processes in circuit semiconductor devices (in Romanian), Publishing House of the Romanian Academy, 1962. 8 M. Drăgănescu, Solid - State Electronics (in Romanian) Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, 1972. 9 M. Drăgănescu, G. Ştefan, C. Burileanu, Functional Electronics (in Romanian) Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, 1991. 10 The list of Ph. D. students supervised by professor Mihai Drăgănescu (the year of thesis is indicated in paranthesis) is: Dan Dascălu (1970), Roman Stere (1972), Constantin Bulucea (1974), Adrian Rusu (1975), Emil Sofron (1977), George Samachişă (1977), Ion Costea (1977), Anca Manolescu (Popescu) (1978), Anton Manolescu (1978), Vladimir Doicaru (1979), Gheorghe Ştefan (1980), Gheorghe Brezeanu (1981), Ali Muheidli Hussein (1981), Ioan Drăghici (1985), Corneliu Burileanu (1986), Dan Steriu (1986), Cornel George Mânduţeanu (1987), Radu Alexandru Dragomir (1987), Petru Alexandru Dan (1988), Nicolae Mihai Iosif (1988), Mircea Bodea (1993), Mihai Mihăilă (1997), Nicolae Marin (1997), Dan Silvestru Popescu (1998), Grigore Stolojanu (1998), Ion Mihuţ (1999). 11 See Section 3.3 (Gheorghe Brezeanu) of SRMN 2018 (op. cit.). 12 Gheorghe Samachişă, the inventor of split gate flash memory, one of the founders of Sun Disk (Vice-President in charge with technology), in Silicon Valley, left the country at the beginning of ’80. 13 See section 2.4 (including biographical notes of professors Dan Dascălu and Dan Neculoiu). 14 A biographical note can be found in Section 2.7 (In Memoriam). 15 A biographical note of Andrei Silard can be found in section 2.7 (In Memoriam). 2 Chapter 1_Micro- and nanoelectronics Brezeanu16. Finally, we are quoting the Laboratory for Micro- and nanoelectronics technologies17, coordinated by professor Anca Manolescu and professor Anton Manolescu. 2.3.2 Domain of electronic systems and architectures18. We are mentioning: Development of microelectronic applications in CNAE (Centre for New Electronic Architectures) under the aegis of the Romanian Academy, see http://cnae.racai.ro/; Development of electronic circuits and apparatus; SpeeD (Speech and Dialogue) laboratory for research in the domain of natural languages (1984), developing systems of automatic recognition of the Romanian language, see ht tps://speed.pub.ro/; Laboratory for Functional Electronics, now Digital Circuits and Architectures Laboratory, ARH19, developing the projects DIAGRAM20, DIALISP21, CONNEX22; CORAL project: minicomputer with PDP-11 architectures, later fabricated, in an original version, by FCE, see https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORAL; project Free Linux for Romania, see http://linux.punct.info/. 2.3 Research groups coordinated by professor Dan Dascălu 2.4.1 Dan Dascălu: biographical note. Born in 1942, graduating in 1965 the Polytechnical Institute of Bucharest (now University „Politehnica“ of Bucharest, UPB), Faculty of Electronics and Communications. He has teaching