Six new projects starting at the IMB-CNM within the R+D+i call of the AEI

The IMB-CNM has received a total of € 1,010,108.00 in the last call PID2020 (State Programs for the Generation of Knowledge and Scientific and Technological Strengthening of the R+D+i and R+D+i System Oriented to Challenges of the Society) to carry out six national projects. The development of semiconductor materials, the study of new chips for chemical studies or trace detectors with temporal resolution for CERN are some of the main themes of the granted initiatives. All of them began on September 1 and they will last for three years.

There are 9 researchers from the IMB-CNM who will direct these projects that address the challenges of society. All can be found on the Projects page of the IMB-CNM website.

OptoFET: New gate configurations for diamond MISFETs with opto-activated channel: technology and characterization

PI: Philippe Godignon.

The constant increase in the electrification and digitization of means of transport such as cars, high-speed trains and airplanes; as well as the need to improve the efficiency of renewable energy systems, have created the need for new semiconductor materials and associated device designs to be used in power electronics systems. Diamond is the most attractive semiconductor for high power applications due to its thermal and electronic properties; but also the most difficult to process. The OptoFET ​​project proposes an innovative approach to manufacturing a diamond-based power FET transistor. It involves integrating a gate control by photoelectric effect, which will allow better isolation and greater efficiency of the transistor. The project will be developed in collaboration with the Universidad de Cádiz, which will be in charge of optimizing diamond growth by CVD. The sequence of design, manufacture and characterization of 3 types of devices will be addressed, with an increasing degree of complexity.

MINAHE7: Design and manufacture of innovative suspension chips for chemical, bioelectronic and mechanical studies in living cells

PI: José A. Plaza and Jaume Esteve.

Development of new chemical, electromagnetic and mechanical intracellular sensors and actuators applied to fundamental studies in nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology. Progress will be made in the transversal implementation of applications, including barcodes to identify cells, devices for electrical stimulation of cells, as well as the manufacture of amphiphilic hydrogels containing chips to increase their distribution and the development of mechanical chips for the study of cellular mechanics. The project will encompass the design, fabrication and characterization of the devices, along with cell biological viability and device performance testing.

LabOnCMOS: Development of an intelligent Lab-on-CMOS platform for the implementation of rapid tests

PI: Toni Baldi and Francisco Serra (UAB).

The objective is the development of a generic, totally disposable, miniaturized and ultrasensitive diagnostic platform for the study of minute volumes of samples accessible in a non-invasive way, as well as their analysis in a clinical setting. It will be carried out by a multidisciplinary team with extensive experience in fields including microfabrication techniques, electronics, microfluidics, analytical chemistry, and microbiology. It brings together members of three research groups from two different institutions: the Chemical Transducers Group (GTQ) and the Integrated Circuits and Systems group (ICAS) of the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM, CSIC) and the Diagnostic Nanotools group (DINA) of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital Research Institute (VHIR).

CMSUPG: IMB-CNM activities for the LHC high luminosity "upgrades": Inner Tracker and Endcap Timing Layer

PI: Salvador Hidalgo and David Flores.

Coordinated between IFCA (UC-CSIC), IMB-CNM (CSIC) and ITAINNOVA, the purpose is to contribute to the update of the innermost trace subdetectors (Inner Tracker) and to the construction of the new detection layer with temporal resolution (Endcap Timing Layer, ETL), which will be part of the update of CERN's CMS (Compact Muon Detector) experiment. This update, which will increase the detector's operating capabilities during the accelerator's high-luminosity phase, poses extraordinary difficulties both in the radiation resistance of the sensors (and their corresponding electronics) and in their ability to reconstruct the interactions produced at the collider (with a high multiplicity of traces and with up to 200 inelastic interactions at each junction of proton packets).

Thus, in the detection areas that require high temporal resolution, a new layer will be integrated made up of silicon sensors with integrated gain called LGAD (Low Gain Avalanche Detectors). This layer, called ETL, will be instrumented with LGAD sensors, thanks to the fact that this type of device achieves adequate temporal resolution thanks to a very fast rising edge of the signal, with a high signal-to-noise ratio. The IMB-CNM is one of the few centers in the world capable of manufacturing this type of sensors, so it will form part of the manufacture of the LGADs necessary for the construction of the CMS ETL (made up of a total of 39,000 sensors, with a size of 1.6 mm square per sensor). In addition, the coordinated project includes the integration of 900 functional modules (made up of the sensor and the reading electronics), studying, through numerical simulations, all aspects related to their optimization and improvement of the mathematical procedures necessary for reconstruction. system-level traces.

LONTIME: 55um pitch soft X-ray Low Gain Avalanche Detectors for imaging applications using the Timepix4 ASIC

PI: Enric Cabruja.

The coincidence of the experience of the Timepix chips at the IFAE and the LGADs at IMB-CNM provides the opportunity to join the LGAD sensors and the Timepix4 ASICs to obtain a low energy X-ray sensor (soft X-Rays). The strategy of the proposal is to use the most suitable LGAD design as a sensor for an LGAD / Timepix4 device, in order to achieve a lower energy threshold, less than 5keV, than others for X-rays. The applications would be in synchrotron light sources, in High Energy Physics (HEP) and in Medical Physics.

microBIO: Advanced Nanomaterials and Smart Standalone Microdevices for Bioelectronic Applications

PI: Gonzalo Murillo.

Epilepsy, chronic pain, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, depression, stroke damage, wound healing, cell and muscle regeneration, and other disorders could be treated by electrically stimulating excitable cells in our body. More than one billion people around the world are affected by these diseases and their direct consequences, according to the World Health Organization. The goal of microBIO is to explore the use of new advanced smart nanomaterials (piezoelectric, triboelectric, flexoelectric and magnetostrictive) and CMOS-compliant microtechnology to integrate self-powered microdevices to modulate in situ the electrical activity of excitable cells (bone, muscle, neurons and cells). skin or mother). Due to the size of the miniaturized device, the spatial resolution of the stimulation is less than one micron, which greatly improves the results obtained by other types of stimulation (multi-electrodes, TENS, etc.). Thanks to the use of CMOS-compliant microtechnology and a wide catalog of biocompatible smart materials, the application possibilities are endless with great potential impact.