IBM Research Zurich - Switzerland

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IBM Research – Zurich is the European branch of the IBM Research Division. Scientific and industrial research activities are conducted in three departments with ca. 400 researchers. It has made major contributions to the advancement of knowledge in material science, nanoscience and nanoscale physics stimulated by problems relevant to technology. Research in the Science & Technology department is concentrated in the fields of nano­technology and future emerging devices, advanced chip technology and materials science. IBM Research – Zurich is the first industrial research lab, which received the Historic Site Award of the European Physical Society for its contributions to physics including the Nobel prizes of 1986 and 1987, and the Kavli prize in nanoscience in 2016.

The Materials Integration and Nanoscale Devices (MIND) group is part of the Science and Technology Department. It currently numbers 17 people of which 41% are female, comprising permanent researchers, post-docs and graduate students. The main focus is on advanced exploratory electronic and photonic materials and devices for applications in neuromorphic or ultra-low power computing, nanophotonics, as well as heterogeneous integration and nanoscale thermal management.

Description the partner’s main task in the project

• Work package leader of WP1
• Task leader of T4.1
• Responsible for IP management, exploitation plan and industrial exploitation.

IBMs expertise is on the semiconductor device conception, fabrication and design. In particular the MIND group focuses on the development of active NW devices for electronic and photonic applications. In IN-FET our main role in the project is to develop the neuro-interfacing technology platform, based on advanced passive and active NW matrices for interfacing to neuronal cells. This covers the fabrication of basic passive NW matrices to be distributed to other partners for cell assembly studies, to more sophisticated active sensing devices to penetrate individual cells, which will be developed in close collaboration with simulation partners.

In addition, Dr. Patrick Ruch is an expert in electrochemical concepts for reversible charge storage and ion selectivity and will work to establish the electrochemical basis for ionic actuation in close collaboration with USFD.

Kirsten E. Moselund (female) is Research Staff Member and manager of the Materials Integration and Nanoscale Devices group at IBM –Research – Zurich. She received a M.Sc in engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in 2003, and her Ph.D. in Microelectronics from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland in 2008. Her background is in semiconductor physics and devices, in particular ultra-low power electronics. Her research interests include nanowire technology, semiconductor physics, nanophotonics and novel electronic and photonic device concepts. In particular, she is interested in exploring the ultimate limits of energy of information processing and storage in electronic and biological systems. K. Moselund has authored 50+ publications (h-index 20). She is an ERC grantee on a project on plasmonically enhanced nanowire emitters. She is also part of the executive committee of the International Electron Devices Meeting, IEDM – the premier venue for microelectronics devices, and an editor of the IEEE J-EDS

Siegfried Karg (male) is Research Staff Member at IBM Research – Zurich since 2000. He holds a Ph. D. degree in physics obtained from Univ. Bayreuth (Germany) in 1995. He held positions as a post-doc at IBM Research - Almaden (1995-1996, DFG post-doctoral fellowship) and as research assistant at Darmstadt Univ. of Technology (1997-1999). He worked on the physics and materials science of organic and polymer devices (OLEDs, OFETs and electrochemical cells) and memory applications (resistive oxide RAM, capacitorless eDRAM). His current research fields are 1D electronic properties of nanostructures and brain-inspired computing applications. S. Karg has authored about 90 publications (h-index 36) and holds more than 30 patents.

Patrick Ruch (male) obtained his Ph.D. in electrochemistry at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland) in 2009 on reversible ion insertion and intercalation in porous and non-porous materials. He joined IBM Research – Zurich in 2009, where he has led research on aqueous redox systems for power delivery and nanoporous materials for thermal energy conversion. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the Hypertaste project in the IBM Research Frontiers Institute for chemical fingerprinting of complex liquids using ion-selective polymers. His work has been recognized by the Willi Studer Prize (ETH Zurich), Empa research prize, Alu-Award (Swiss Aluminum Society), Young Author Award (Oronzio and Niccolò De Nora Foundation) and an Outstanding Technical Achievement Award by IBM. He has served on the Executive Board of the Swiss Physical Society. His research specifically on reversible electrochemical ion intercalation has been cited 760+ times. Overall, Dr. Ruch has published 50+ publications (h-index 23), filed 15+ patents, and supervised 16+ graduate and postgraduate researchers at IBM. Research – Zurich to date.

Previous projects or activities relevant to IN-FET

• H2020: Phase-Change Switch, Metal-Insulator-Transition Switches for Beyond and Extended CMOS, (FET OPEN, 737109, 2017-2020). IBM’s role: Switches for von-Neumann and neuromorphic applications. PI – S. Karg
• H2020: REMINDER, Revolutionary Embedded Memory for INternet of Things Devices and Energy Reduction, (ICT, 687931, 2016-2018). IBM’s role: Development and characterization of modules for III-V memory cells. PI – S. Karg
• H2020: PLASMIC, Plasmonically-enhanced III-V nanowire lasers on silicon for integrated communications (ERC StG, 678567, 2016). PI - K. Moselund
• H2020: EFINED, Energy Filtering Non-Equilibrium Devices (FET Open RIA, 766853, 2017). IBMs role: Thermal characterization of nano-objects, and design and fabrication of nanoscale sensors. Co-PI - K. Moselund
• FP7: E2SWITCH -Energy Efficient Tunnel FET Switches and Circuits (2013-2017). IBM’s role: Develop low voltage energy efficient III-V/silicon tunnel FET devices and their digital and analog applications.

Relevant publications

• Mensch, P.; Moselund, K.; Karg, S.; Lörtscher, E.; Björk, M. & Riel, H. Interface State Density of Single Vertical Nanowire MOS Capacitors, IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology, 2013, 12, 279 –282
• Moselund, K. E.; Schmid, H.; Bessire, C.; Björk, M. T.; Ghoneim, H. & Riel, H. InAs–Si Nanowire Heterojunction Tunnel FETs. IEEE Electron Device Letters, 2012, 33, 1453-1455
• Wirths, S.; Mayer, B. F.; Schmid, H.; Sousa, M.; Gooth, J.; Riel, H. & Moselund, K. E. Room Temperature Lasing from Monolithically Integrated GaAs Microdisks on Si. ACS Nano, 2018, 12, 2169-2175
• Marschewski, J.; Brenner, L.; Ebejer, N.; Ruch, P.; Michel, B. & Poulikakos, D. 3D-printed fluidic networks for high-power-density heat-managing miniaturized redox flow batteries. Energy Environ. Sci. 2017, 10, 780–787.
• Ruch, P. W.; Hahn, M.; Rosciano, F.; Holzapfel, M.; Kaiser, H.; Scheifele, W.; Schmitt, B.; Novàk, P.; Kötz, R. & Wokaun, A.. In situ X-ray diffraction of the intercalation of (C2H5)4N+ and BF4− into graphite from acetonitrile and propylene carbonate based supercapacitor electrolytes. Electrochim. Acta 2007, 53, 1074–1082

Description of infrastructures relevant for IN-FET

The Binnig-and-Rohrer Nanotechnology Center (BRNC) at IBM Research – Zurich, provides a 1000m2 state-of-the-art infrastructure for semiconductor device processing with up to 6-inch capability for fabrication and analysis. In addition, to the general cleanroom facilities we also have access to III/V MOCVD and MBE epitaxial growth tools. Extensive electrical measurement capabilities for device characterization such as low-level current and low-temperature measurements and frequency-dependent characterization are available as well.

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