FuSe-TG: A Co-Design Model for Advanced Manufacturing and Workforce Development to Enhance Future Semiconductor Technologies

Manipulating information at the sub-cellular scale inspired Richard Feynman to imagine biological approaches to miniaturize computing architectures. At the time of his now prescient lecture, There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom, this possibility seemed like science fiction. Today, technology exists where we can explore the possibility of integrating biology with semiconductor materials to manipulate matter at the atomic scale in order to enable novel computing architectures. This project aims to do exactly this by building a team capable of integrating DNA-nanotechnology with emerging 2-dimensional materials. This approach could lead to new fundamental understanding of the limits of future semiconductor technology. This teaming grant brings together expertise from the Pacific Northwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States to develop an integrated theoretical-computational-experimental co-design framework which can enable the discovery of novel physical phenomena which will reduce energy consumption across the computing spectrum, accelerating the deployment of functional high-performance materials and energy-efficient device structures that will revolutionize non-von Neumann technologies. The goal of this team-forming grant is to cultivate a broad coalition of researchers capable of advancing the future of semiconductor manufacturing through a co-design approach combining experiments and computation. We aim to establish a new semiconductor manufacturing paradigm which merges computational sciences and experiments at the nexus of DNA nanotechnology and 2-dimensional (2D) materials to develop novel energy-efficient neural computing devices which can help reduce global computing related energy demands. Specifically, we will design DNA nanostructure templates for atomically precise patterning and doping of 2D materials in order to create 2D synapses and their neuromorphic circuits. Close collaboration with our Industrial Advisory Board and community college partners will enable a skilled workforce capable of leveraging both synthetic biological processes and emerging 2D materials in the design and development of next generation computing paradigms. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.