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YEAR BOOK |
University College Cork
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NMRC: Ireland's premier
ICT research institute
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About NMRC
First established in 1981, NMRC has built a solid reputation for scientific and technological excellence, as well as excellence in education and research and development support to industry. Today, NMRC is among the leading research Institutes in Europe, with a fundamental mission to develop new scientific knowledge and world-class excellence. In addition, NMRC remains a long-term partner of the national science, technology and innovation infrastructure via the following strategic initiatives:
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� Support for indigenous and multinational industry
� Education and training programmes designed to provide industry with highly educated staff and trained personnel � Spin-off and technology transfer initiatives designed to stimulate new indigenous industry and inward investment. |
NMRC's strategic research approach is to initiate targeted interdisciplinary research programmes focused on clearly identified challenges relating to development of mainstream and next generation information and communication technologies. At present, this research agenda incorporates initiatives in photonics, nanotechnology, microtechnologies and research at the ICT/Bio interface. A summary of our ICT research agenda in these four areas is presented as follows:
Photonics Research
Photonics research at NMRC ranges in scope from computational investigations of photonic materials and device properties through to growth, fabrication and characterisation of light sources, development of novel photonic integration technologies, and demonstration of new optical interconnect strategies. Key research focus areas include:
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� Physics of Photonic Devices
- a key requirement for photonics in telecomm and datacomm applications is the development of low-cost semiconductor lasers emitting in the wavelength range between 1.3 and 1.5 microns. NMRC researchers lead European investigations to achieve this aim.
� Light Sources - with plastic optical fibre (POF) becoming a more attractive solution for short (<200m) applications, and with optimum sources for POF in the visible region, NMRC has research programs on both GaN-based green and GaAs-based red resonant cavity light emitting diodes (RCLEDs) and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). NMRC has also developed a laser based on an unstable resonator created by etching a mirror into the wafer. � Optical Interconnect - NMRC's patented novel sol-gel waveguide fabrication technology achieved a new milestone when planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology demonstrators operating at 633, 850, 1330 and 1550 nm were produced with performance suitable to meet the requirements of central office (CO) and remote terminal (RT) environments. NMRC's research programme on all-polymer planar waveguide technologies expanded with new activities on novel waveguide design, low cost fabrications technologies and reliability analysis. Infrastructural capability was also enhanced with the acquisition of a hot embossing fabrication capability and new polymer waveguide facet sawing and polishing facilities. Single mode polymer PLC components have been designed and prototyped using these new tools. � Biophotonics - Research activity in biophotonics involves the development of highly innovative photonics microsystems to enable new applications in chemical analysis and biotechnology. Applications include photonic microsystems for new compound, cell, gene and protein analysis. |
Nanotechnology Research
Nanotechnology research at NMRC is focused on simulation and design of new nanomaterials and nanostructures across a hierarchy of length- and time-scales, development of novel synthesis and processing approaches to fabrication of nanoscale devices, and characterisation of the properties of these materials and devices with nanometre scale dimensional resolution. Strong emphasis is placed on exploitation of new nanostructures in emerging electronic and photonic applications. Key research focus areas include:
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� Simulation and Design for Molecular Electronics
- it is predicted that the size of individual transistors will shrink to nanometre dimensions and may soon approach the size of individual molecules. In order to explore possible new molecular electronic technologies, NMRC is studying molecules with thiol groups bonded on gold, which is an important model system for molecular wires self-assembled at gold contacts.
� Quantum Computing - To build quantum computers, stable individual, isolated qubits must be developed such that each qubit quantum state is not changed or lost upon interactions with its environment, but only under controlled manipulation by external signals. NMRC has shown for endohedrally-doped fullerenes that nitrogen and phosphorus are so far the only two dopants, excluding the noble gas atoms, which do not chemically bond to the C60 cage and might thereby be considered as potential qubits. � Nanoscale Electronic Devices - NMRC researchers have fabricated nanodevices based on self-assembled chemically synthesised metal nanocrystals that exhibit clear Coulomb blockade behaviour at low temperatures. Metal nanowires, fabricated by pore-template electrodeposition, are also now being studied using a range of structural and electrical characterisation techniques. Detailed knowledge derived from these studies will be exploited for design and development of new nanoscale devices with novel electronic and/or photonic functionality. � Biomimetic Nanofabrication - Fabrication of spatially well-defined, nano-ordered bacterial S-layer protein at silicon supports has been successfully achieved by exploiting the soft lithography technique, micromolding in capillaries, as a non-lithographic (maskless) patterning tool. � Field Configured Self-Assembly - This is a new method developed by NMRC to enable self-assembly and functional integration at all length scales. This programmable force field method successfully permits rapid, 'hands-free' manipulation, assembly and integration of nano-and microscale objects and devices. A new application of the method to rapid, parallel assembly of dissimilar sub-100�m GaAs-based light emitting diodes at silicon chip substrates has been demonstrated. � Organic Electronics - Since electronic properties and overall performance of organic (opto)-electronic devices may depend on the nanostructure of component organic layers, NMRC is developing novel methods for fabrication and characterisation of organic molecule- and polymer-based devices. For detailed characterisation of structure, morphology and electronic properties of organic materials at the nanoscale, new methods based on near-field scanning optical microscopy and conducting probe atomic force microscopy are also under development. |
Microtechnologies Research
Microtechnologies research at NMRC addresses the development of future microelectronic and microsystem technologies for information processing and communications applications. A fully integrated technology innovation cycle, from technology design, process module development and optimisation to prototype fabrication is supported by a comprehensive suite of technology characterisation and analysis tools. Key research focus areas include:
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� Modelling and Simulation
- NMRC is using 'first principles' simulations to investigate fundamental questions about thin film structure, its stability on silicon and optimum methods for deposition. Additionally, NMRC is currently developing compact models for a range of different non-volatile memory structures. During the year, a new model has been developed for a novel low power nonvolatile memory device, the Top Floating Gate cell, which can be integrated into standard CMOS processes. This research is also investigating the development of novel models of conventional stacked gate memory devices.
� Materials, Technology and Devices - Research in this area focuses on electroless copper metallization research for advanced IC interconnect and electrical analysis of the Si(100)/HfO2 interface. Micro-transformers fabricated on silicon have been tested in a dc-dc converter switching at 5 MHz, demonstrating state-of-the-art performance for such devices. � Reliability, Packaging and Integration - Research into the area of the reliability of micro-machined switches has focused on surface micromachined fixed-fixed beam structures for applications in RF MEMS switches. In the area of Ambient Intelligence, NMRC's research has focused on the development of a portable, functioning 25mm cubic module for distributed, autonomous sensor systems. |
ICT/Bio Research
ICT/Bio research at NMRC focuses on the development of novel devices for high-throughput clinical discovery and screening, medical diagnosis, delivery of therapeutic agents, and synthesis, separation and analysis of a range of chemical species. Miniaturisation and chip-level integration of these new technologies is achieved by leveraging our existing microtechnologies infrastructure. Key research focus areas include:
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� Clinical Diagnostics for Point-of-Care Analysis
- NMRC has focused on the development of miniaturised, automated genetic analysis systems and processes, which have the potential to dramatically reduce instrument costs, reagent volumes and the handling time per sample, offering significant potential for future low cost, high speed, point-of-care diagnostics.
� Microsystem Components for Chemical Detection - Research into microsystems for chemical detection include micromixing for fluid circulation in a circular microchannel, detection of heavy metals, pesticides, and fungicides, and microsystems for process control. � Bio-Medical Microsystems - NMRC researchers are focusing on the development of microsystems for in-vivo human gene therapy and patient radiation monitoring systems. � Bionics - Research in this emerging field at NMRC focuses on exploring interactions between living biological cells and microelectronics systems. |
Education, Training, and Access to Infrastructure
NMRC takes proactive steps to ensure that the Institute remains internationally competitive on a global scale via initiatives that actively engage collaboration with key international universities. A collaboration agreement with Northwestern University's Materials Research Centre (Illinois, USA) focuses on the development of a virtual nanophotonics research laboratory, the first of its kind between the US and Ireland. This follows the ground-breaking research agreement between NMRC and two of China's premier research universities, Jiao Tong and Fudan Universities (Shanghai, China), which has already paved the way towards collaborative research in selected ICT areas and staff and student exchanges.
These initiatives have positioned NMRC today as the premier training and education facility in ICT-related technologies in Ireland. Since its foundation, over 260 postgraduate level engineers and scientists have graduated from NMRC. Currently, the Institute hosts over 90 full- and part-time (industry-sponsored) postgraduates.
NMRC also acts as a high-tech skills incubator to ensure the availability of skilled personnel in future emerging ICT fields for Irish industry. Reflecting NMRC's position as the hub of Ireland's ICT infrastructure, the Institute interacts with all Irish third level universities. To-date, over twenty research teams from several Irish Universities and Institutes of Technology have utilised our facilities. Significant infrastructure investments, including the acquisition of Europe's first Jeol JBX-6000FS Electron Beam system, underscores NMRC's place at the forefront of Irish research and development, facilitating NMRC research and benefiting Irish researchers via NMRC's access to infrastructure programme.
Finally, the EU-funded 'Enhancing access to infrastructure' programme, in which NMRC has been active in recent EU framework programmes, allows researchers from European and associated states access to NMRC research infrastructure and expertise.
Partnership with Industry
Industry involvement within the Institute's four research areas is pervasive and multidimensional, ranging in scale from that of major collaborative research programmes involving international research consortia, addressing well-recognised emerging technology challenges, to focused company-specific mainstream (roadmap) technology R&D.
NMRC's participation in European advanced research programmes over the years has provided an important conduit for ICT excellence to Irish industry. These collaborations help build NMRC's research expertise and technology portfolio which enables us to support the long-term development of the ICT sector in Ireland and Europe. NMRC now provides Irish industry and academia with access to an extensive range of technology and infrastructure. Key NMRC initiatives in this area include:
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� Providing research, educational and training opportunities that will produce scientists and engineers with critical skill sets for the future needs of industry to sustain Ireland's leadership in ICT into the future
� Developing strategic ICT-related technologies and intellectual property platforms that will enable the products of tomorrow � Facilitating access to state-of-the-art ICT infrastructure for both academic and industry researchers in Ireland to help accelerate research and development cycles � Promoting the rapid transfer of ICT innovation and research capability into existing Irish based companies � Enabling the creation of high-technology spin-off companies seeded with novel intellectual property arising from NMRC research to build a sustainable indigenous ICT industry base. |
Through these initiatives, NMRC also plays a key role in assisting government agencies such as the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) and Enterprise Ireland (EI) achieve their national development objectives to expand the high technology ICT sector and maintain Ireland's sustainable competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
Contact: Liz Folan O'Connor, Communications Officer, NMRC,
University College, Lee Maltings, Prospect Row, Cork;
Tel: 021 4904329; Fax: 021 4270271; E-mail: [email protected]