FORNEL

RESEARCH ASSOCIATION FOR NANOELECTRONICS

FORNEL

The association

Cell phones, computers, automobiles, and almost all machines: Nothing works without microelectronics, and the devices are getting smaller and smaller and still more powerful. About 4.5 million jobs in Germany, for example in mechanical and electrical engineering or automobile industry, depend on microelectronics. Microelectronics is facing a rapid progress: The number of electron devices on a memory chip doubles every 18 months. Within the transition from micro to nanoelectronics, classical silicon technology faces physical and economic limits. Manufacturing processes and materials for semiconductor industry, but also device and circuit design therefore require a radical change in technology in many fields. The tiny structures need boundary and interface layers of only a few or one atom, which changes the electronic properties of the layers. Ballistic and quantum effects in addition require completely new development approaches for devices and circuits. Therefore, new nanostructures, nanodevices, and nanocircuits are the goal of the Bavarian Research Cooperation for Nanoelectronics (FORNEL). The Research Cooperation conducts research and development on new materials and deposition techniques for ultra-thin layers as well as for nanoimprint, an alternative lithography technique. Also concepts for new devices are part of the research program, for example tunneling transistors with ultra-low leakage currents and their application in analog circuits, or socalled Y transistors, which may serve as components for memory or logic gates in extremely compact circuits. In the field of nanoelectronics, FORNEL networks the strong research community and industry in Bavaria, and therefore serves as an important engine for innovation and secures the high-tech position of Bavaria.

Information

Launching date

07.2004

End

12.2007