The Department of Physics at the University of Warwick will receive funding of £1.7 million for “Creating Silicon Based Platforms for New Technologies” for a duration of 5 years.
The project will lead to the development of innovative technologies from energy harvesting to zero-power electronics. These technologies could be the solution to combat climatic changes globally.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) provided the £1.7 million grant to help the Nano-Silicon Group of the University of Warwick to utilize their facilities and to introduce innovative developments in silicon-based technologies. The funding will begin in October. The flexible and special nature of this key funding will aid the development of silicon-based epitaxy methods. Innovative materials are produced by techniques which deposit atomic layers one by one. Such materials could lead to the development of new technologies that can serve a wide range of applications from health monitoring and computing to tackling climatic changes.
The researchers have previously demonstrated that it is possible to deposit silicon with layers of germanium using these technologies in order to explore new opportunities in spintronics, photonics, in an electronic fridge, and for energy harvesting through thermoelectrics and photovoltaics.
Professor David Leadley at the University of Warwick stated that the EPSRC considers silicon epitaxy as an emerging field to be supported by the UK. Such grants will enable researchers to develop materials for the future of nanoelectronics.
Source: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/