Santa Clara University

Announcements!

Updates on TENT Project

As the Thermal and Electrical Nanoscale Transport (TENT) project enters its third year, we are pleased to announce that the objectives of designing, fabricating, and characterizing test structures for carbon-based interconnect and thermal interface materials have been successfully met.  In addition, funded by the U.S. Army through the TENT project, three major pieces of equipment have been either acquired from vendors or built in-house.  These are: plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system for growth of carbon nanostructures purchased from Aixtron, magnetron sputtering system for metal deposition purchased from AJA, and a thermal resistance measurement apparatus for thermal interface materials (TIM3) designed and constructed by TENT members.  These advanced instruments, combined with existing equipment in the CNS labs, allow us to continue to produce research results that meet the project requirements, while at the same time create new knowledge in our quest to develop next-generation on-chip interconnect materials and high-performing thermal interface materials.  So far, the TENT project has produced fifteen articles published in top-tier journals and fifty-five papers presented in international conferences, including seventeen invited papers.    

The TENT team at Santa Clara University currently consists of the principal investigator, Dr. Cary Yang, three faculty co-investigators, a senior researcher, a lab manager, an administrative associate, four graduate students, and four undergraduate students.  These individuals work closely with researchers from partner organizations at the University of California, Stanford, NASA Ames Research Center, Hitachi, and Radiance Technologies.  "The TENT project is an example of working closely with government, industry, and academic partners on cutting-edge technology, while at the same time being a product of such collaborative effort," Yang said. "Everyone associated with the Center for Nanostructures has been benefiting from these partnerships, and we all look forward to contributing to the advancement of next-generation chip technology through this exciting project."

 Past Announcements:

New Associate Director for CNS

It is my great pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. Drazen Fabris, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering to the new position of Associate Director at the Center for Nanostructures.

Drazen received his bachelor's degree from Caltech, and master's and Ph.D. degrees from UC Berkeley, all in mechanical engineering. He joined Santa Clara in 2000. His expertise is in fluid dynamics and thermal science involving the development of optical experimental techniques, with a parallel interest in numerical modeling. At Santa Clara, Drazen has co-developed the microscale boiling laboratory to study high-speed nucleation and bubble growth processes, and spray cooling physics. As a co-investigator, Drazen has been leading the thermal interface materials effort under the Thermal and Electrical Nanoscale Transport (TENT) project. He has organized national workshops in direct liquid cooling (2006), a forum on energy use and policy (2001), and was invited to the Japan-America Frontiers of Engineering (2007) organized by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. In addition, Drazen has received support for education and curriculum development from the National Science Foundation. He is currently a member of the CNS Steering Committee.

As Associate Director, Drazen will be responsible for coordinating all CNS Steering Committee meetings with the Committee Chair, and together with the Center Director and Steering Committee members, spearheading the effort in promoting and fostering additional partnerships between Engineering and Science, Business, as well as the Center for Science, Technology, and Society. I expect these responsibilities will evolve as the size and scope of the Center's activities grow in the coming years.

Please join me in thanking Drazen for accepting this new challenge in addition to his many other responsibilities at the University.

Thank you,
Cary