UW ECE Research Colloquium Lecture Series: Yanjie Shao, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Campus location: Electrical and Computer Engineering Building (ECE)
Campus room: ECE 037
Accessibility Contact: events@ece.uw.edu

Event Link

Ultra-Scaled Energy-Efficient Electronics

Abstract 

The explosive growth of data-centric computing in the era of artificial intelligence has made energy efficiency a central challenge for modern microelectronics. Two fundamental limitations now dominate: (1) the “power wall”, where stalled voltage scaling in advanced complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technologies has largely limited further reductions in transistor switching energy, and (2) the “memory wall”, where data movement between computing and memory units increasingly dominates energy cost and restricts information throughput. In this talk, I will present two complementary approaches, leveraging new material systems and nanoscale processing to enable unprecedented device operating regimes and scalable 3D integration paradigms beyond conventional CMOS scaling. First, I target a supply voltage ≤ 0.3 V by exploiting quantum-mechanical tunneling in a broken-band heterojunction semiconductor system (GaSb/InAs). I will show that a combination of sub-thermionic turn-on, high drive current and ultimate device scalability can be achieved simultaneously in a vertical-nanowire tunneling transistor configuration. Second, I will describe a low-thermal-budget (≤ 400 °C) electronic technology integration platform enabled by amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOS) and ferroelectric (FE) hafnium-zirconium oxide. By exploiting plasma-enhanced atomic-layer deposition, enhancement-mode AOS transistors with record logic performance are realized, and nanoscale FE memory transistors comprising a single domain are demonstrated. Together, these results highlight how emerging materials can drive
high-performance and multifunctional devices that unlock new pathways for future energy-efficient 3D electronics.

Biography 

Yanjie Shao is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL), working with Prof. Jesús del Alamo and Prof. Dimitri Antoniadis. He received his Ph.D. (2023) and S.M. (2021) in Electrical Engineering from MIT, advised by Prof. Jesús del Alamo, and his B.S. in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). His research focuses on addressing fundamental materials, device, and integration challenges to advance energy-efficient semiconductor and microelectronics technologies. He is a recipient of the 2023 Intel Outstanding Researcher Award.