Job Description
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), College of Design and Engineering, is seeking a Research Fellow to lead the process development and device fabrication track of a research programme on wafer-scale carbon nanotube CMOS. The work runs on two tracks: process modules are developed and optimised on coupon-scale samples at NUS, then transferred as a documented process-of-record to an industry partner for verification on a 200 mm line.
Key responsibilities:
- Develop and optimise the core CNFET process modules — ALD high-k gate stacks, source/drain contact metallisation, channel cleaning and passivation, and threshold-voltage control — within a BEOL-compatible (≤ 400 °C) thermal budget.
- Build a silicon-fab-compatible contact integration scheme using only unit processes a production line already runs, and scale the device geometry to aggressive contacted gate pitch by electron-beam or DUV lithography.
- Qualify incoming carbon nanotube array film as a device-grade channel material (density, alignment, uniformity, purity, residues) by SEM, AFM, Raman and optical mapping, and define acceptance criteria.
- Characterise devices electrically and statistically — transfer and output characteristics, contact resistance, subthreshold swing, hysteresis, threshold distributions and basic reliability screening.
- Author the process-of-record (flow sheet, recipes, metrology plan, in-line control limits) and support its lab-to-fab transfer to the partner line, including joint failure analysis and corrective process splits.
- Develop an CNFET module for complementary operation, and fabricate CNFET integrated circuits in collaboration with the circuit design team.
- Publish in leading venues, supervise graduate students in the cleanroom, and contribute to invention disclosures and research proposals.
Qualifications
Essential:
- PhD in Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Applied Physics, Chemical Engineering or a closely related field (awarded, or thesis submitted, at the time of application).
- Substantial hands-on cleanroom experience covering a credible fraction of: atomic layer deposition, electron-beam and/or stepper lithography, reactive ion etching, physical vapour deposition and evaporation, and wet processing.
- Demonstrated ability to take a device from mask design through fabrication to working electrical data — the whole flow, not a single module.
- Electrical characterisation of nanoscale transistors (semiconductor parameter analyser, probe station), with the statistical discipline to separate a real process effect from a lucky device.
- A publication record commensurate with career stage, strong written and spoken English, and the ability to work independently and to guide junior researchers.
Desirable:
- Device fabrication on nanomaterials — carbon nanotubes, 2D materials or nanowires.
- Contact engineering and contact-resistance reduction on low-dimensional channels; work-function engineering for complementary operation.
- Low-temperature / BEOL-compatible integration or monolithic 3D process experience.
- Exposure to a 200 mm or 300 mm production environment, or prior collaboration with a foundry, including what it takes to make a recipe transferable.
- Design of experiments, statistical process control, and in-line metrology.
- Cleanroom tool ownership and safety leadership.