An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories Fiscal Year 2001 (2001) / Chapter Skim
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2. Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory
2. Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory
Pages 9-60
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Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory 9
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Nye, this assessment of the fiscal year 2001 activities of the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory is based on site visits by individual panel members, a formal meeting of the panel on February 15-16, 2001, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and documents provided by the laboratory.~ 1 National Institute of Standards and Technology, Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory, Summary of 2000 Project Status Reports (10/1/1999-9/30/2000J, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 29, 2001. See also Programs, Activities, and Accomplishments books for each division.
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The Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory is organized into six divisions and two offices: Electricity Division, Semiconductor Electronics Division, Radio-Frequency Technology Division, Electromagnetic Technology Division, Optoelectronics Division, Magnetic Technology Division, Office of Microelectronics Programs, and Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) (see Figure 2.1~.
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In the Electricity Division, exceptional progress has been made on the electronic kilogram project, which aims to use a watt balance apparatus to define an alternative to the artifactual kilogram standard; high-impact and ingenious work is occurring on characterizing flat panel displays; resistance calibration capabilities were expanded up to the 100 TO level; and cutting-edge investigations into the role of single-electron tunneling technologies in metrology continue. In the Semiconductor Electronics Division, staff are designing test structures based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
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In the Magnetic Technology Division, staff are using the new microfabrication capabilities in Boulder to construct a "magnetometeron-a-chip" for measuring many fundamental magnetic parameters on a nanometer scale; magnetodynamics work is leading to a deeper understanding of high-speed switching phenomena, which in turn has inspired an innovative new project on spintronics; and NIST provided unique facilities and expertise for testing of superconductors to be used in high-energy physics experiments and in the program to develop high-temperature superconductors for electric power technology. In the Office of Law Enforcement Standards, NIST staff supervise a wide array of high-quality, customer-driven programs in weapons and protective systems, detection and enforcement technologies, chemical systems and materials, forensic services, and public safety communication standards.
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Laboratory Resources Funding sources for the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory are shown in Table 2.
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and the Semiconductor Electronics Division has finished O , .
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In the Semiconductor Electronics Division, NIST was a leader in providing test structures for evaluating the reliability of aluminum interconnect systems, but as the semiconductor industry has moved to copper interconnect systems, KEEL has been unable to find the funding or the personnel to develop similar test structures for copper. In other cases, NIST simply cannot fund programs in new areas that will be critical to meeting industrial measurements and standards needs.
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3U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Electricity Division: Programs, Activities, and Accomplishments, NISTIR 6587, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 2001.
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One reason this project is so appropriate for NIST is the significant benefit that will accrue from the ability of staff to compare results from this activity with those from the calculable capacitor that the Electricity Division uses to maintain the farad. In the Measurement for Complex Electronic Systems project, staff are using sophisticated mathematical techniques to extend efforts into the thorny area of IDDQ testing, in which the power supply current of a semiconductor device is measured as a function of the digital state of the device.
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taxpayers as efficiently as possible. The Electricity Division is very active in disseminating information about NIST results, activities, and services and maintaining the international visibility of NIST' s high-quality programs and technical capabilities.
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industry is the international role played by NIST personnel. Electricity Division staff participate in many international standards activities and engage in cooperative programs with other national measurement institutes.
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A final example of a key customer well served by the Electricity Division is the electric power industry, which provides critical infrastructure for the U.S. economy.
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Division Resources Funding sources for the Electricity Division are shown in Table 2.2. As of January 2001, staffing for the Electricity Division included 57 full-time permanent positions, of which 51 were for technical professionals.
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The panel is therefore concerned that the current limitations on resources may interfere with the Electricity Division's ability to sustain its leadership in electrical metrology to the extent necessary to support U.S. industry.
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Also, three levels of management (the Electricity Division Chief, the KEEL Director, and the NIST Director) are all serving in an acting capacity.
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Division staff are well aware of the importance of seeking out the issues facing the semiconductor industry in which the unique capabilities of NIST can be applied effectively to produce solutions in a timely manner. As a result, the industry views the Semiconductor Electronics Division's contributions as essential.
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The Semiconductor Electronics Division' s findings have been successfully transferred to industry, resulting in improved device properties and yields. The next challenge in this program will be how to broaden the scope of the effort to include emerging compound semiconductor materials such as group III nitrides, indium phosphide (InP)
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Imaging capabilities like this have significant potential to increase the understanding of a variety of systems and to support new process monitoring approaches; the panel feels this technology is likely to be developed into a commercial instrument. O O , ~ The team working on MEMS has designed unique static and dynamic test structures that utilize MEMS technology to measure the stress and strain of thin films on IC structures.
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The panel is deeply disappointed that this important industrial need has had to go unmet. Program Relevance and Effectiveness The Semiconductor Electronics Division has played a key role in the phenomenal growth of the semiconductor industry and in helping U.S.
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As noted in past reports, the panel is supportive of staff's key roles in working groups that set the metrology requirements in the ITRS. Semiconductor Electronics Division personnel have been active in the industrial effort to develop the first compound semiconductor roadmap.
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Division Resources Funding sources for the Semiconductor Electronics Division are shown in Table 2.3. As of January 2001, staffing for the Semiconductor Electronics Division included 38 full-time permanent positions, of which 33 were for technical professionals.
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scientists to do these tasks. NIST should be particularly concerned about maintaining the productivity of the technical staff because the personnel in the Semiconductor Electronics Division are a world-class collection of engineers and scientists with unique expertise in the field of metrology.
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Due to extraordinary efforts on the part of Semiconductor Electronics Division staff, the problem has now been addressed and the program is back on track (although severely delayed)
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Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Radio-Frequency Technology Division: Programs, Activities, and Accomplishments, NISTIR 6603, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 2001.
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The current portfolio of division programs serves customers from several communities. From calibration services to standards committee participation to research and development on new measurement methods and equipment, a wide range of division activities are positioned to impact a number of industries, including wireless communications, semiconductors, and the many types of manufacturing affected by electromagnetic compatibility issues.
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The High-Speed Microelectronics program is active in areas with impact on the photonics commun~ty as well as on the semiconductor industry. In both areas, Radio-Frequency Technology Division staff have successful collaborated with personnel outside the division to produce important results.
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For example, the Fundamental Microwave Quantities project focuses on calibration services in three areas: power and voltage standards, scattering parameters and impedance, and noise standards and measurements. Through these efforts, the division is able to provide core measurement services in power, impedance, voltage, noise, and transfer standards at frequencies of 10 kHz to 110 GHz.
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While the road next to the facility has been completed and an air conditioning system has been installed since the panel's last report, the air conditioning and humidity control system still needs to be adjusted and installation of the sprinkler fire suppression system still needs to be completed before the facility can truly be considered operational. Performing near field antenna pattern measurements under the conditions that prevail in this facility is a significant handicap for NIST staff, and as industry requires measurements at higher and higher frequencies, the situation
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Electromagnetic Technology Division Technical Merit According to division documentation, the mission of the Electromagnetic Technology Division is to enhance the nation's competitiveness by creating, developing and promulgating state-of-the-art measurement capabilities and standards; using quantum phenomena, low noise available at cryogenics temperatures, and fabrication of specialized integrated circuits, including nanometer-sized devices; emphasizing electrical standards; using unique technical capabilities to assist other NIST organizations with exceptionally difficult measurements; determining data, theory, models, and materials necessary to effectively apply results, and assisting other industrial, government and scientific organizations to adapt division-developed techniques to their needs. The Electromagnetic Technology Division develops electronic standards and measurement techniques based on quantum effects unique to cryogenic and nanoscale devices.
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Uniquely, the Electromagnetic Technology Division was the source of several new groups within KEEL: The Micro_ o o wave Metrology Group was spun off in about 1990, the Optoelectronics Division in 1994, and the Magnetic Technology Division this past year. This history demonstrates the significant and lasting impact of the basic science and technology studies of this program.
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This work involves the collaboration of personnel across KEEL, particularly in the Electricity, Electromagnetic Technology, and Optoelectronics Divisions. Another effort within the Nanoscale Cryoelectronics project illustrates the productive convergence of expertise in single-electron devices and nanofabrication: the work on the single-photon turnstile, a novel device that can generate single photons on demand.
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Specific recent advances in voltage standards by this project include the programmable voltage standard, which promises to provide an absolutely stable voltage reference for standards use and for the execution of standards experiments and to be a much more convenient voltage standard system than the DC volt. In the short term, the impact of this work will first be seen in the Electricity Division, where the programmable voltage standard may soon replace the banks of electrochemical cells used for NIST's voltage calibration services.
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The broad and diverse set of customers include standards laboratories working in the area of radiometry and thermometry, researchers specializing in infrared astronomy, Department of Defense contractors, and the law enforcement community. Some work in this area also has the potential for having an impact beyond these direct customers.
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Division Resources Funding sources for the Electromagnetic Technology Division are shown in Table 2.5. As of January 2001, staffing for the Electromagnetic Technology Division included 22 full-time permanent positions, of which 20 were for technical professionals.
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As mentioned above, the Electromagnetic Technology Division programs rely heavily on access to state-of-the-art microfabrication facilities in order to produce a variety of devices essential to the division's work, including submicron single-electron tunneling devices, Josephson junctions arrays, DC SQUID, and MEMS devices. Last year, a major renovation and expansion of the clean room facility at NIST Boulder was completed, and the clean room is now in routine operation, with the primary users being staff from the Electromagnetic Technology Division and the Magnetic Technology Division.
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That reduced the number of projects per scientist, as suggested by the panel in last year's report. This past year, the Optoelectronics Division was reorganized into three groups, Sources and Detectors, Optical Fibers and Components, and Optoelectronic Manufacturing, each of which is responsible for three projects.
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Nevertheless, the quality of the current work in this group continues to be world-class, and the results produced are critical to the development of optical networks and hence to the strength of the information industry in the United States. Since dispersion in optical components and fibers can limit the transmission data rate, dispersion measurement techniques and standards are critical to the commercialization of high-speed optical fiber systems.
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. In addition, since the results from various commonly used techniques for measuring doping concentration show large discrepancies, industry would definitely benefit from a NIST study of these measurement techniques and an investigation of whether relevant standards can be produced for doping concentrations in compound semiconductors (particularly alloys with high aluminum content e.g., AlxGa~_xAs with x > 0.70~.
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The staff also established five new calibration services in 2000, and the customer base for divisional calibration services grew about 10 percent for this year. To communicate information about NIST capabilities to relevant research communities, division staff publish reports (26 last year)
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Division Resources Funding sources for the Optoelectronics Division are shown in Table 2.6. As of January 2001, staffing for the Optoelectronics Division included 35 full-time permanent positions, of which 32 were for technical professionals.
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Further efforts also need to be made on improving the utilization of laboratory space. The panel was disappointed to learn that the very appropriate plan to consolidate Optoelectronics Division staff in one building by taking advantage of the space vacated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
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optical fiber telecommunications industry. Magnetic Technology Division Technical Merit According to division documentation, the proposed mission of the Magnetic Technology Division is to develop and disseminate advanced measurement methods and standards for the magnetic data storage and superconductor power industries.
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The panel also suggests that the Magnetic Technology Division coordinate with the Electromagnetic Technology Division to ensure that the different responsibilities for work on superconducting materials, which now occurs in both groups, be clearly delineated in the two mission statements. The Magnetic Technology Division is a new division of KEEL, formed in the fall of 2000 from several projects that split off from the Electromagnetic Technology Division.
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. The Magnetic Technology Division's work on superconducting materials consists of two principal efforts.
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In the magnetodynamics area, Magnetic Technology Division staff participate in the NSIC Extremely High Density Recording (EHDR) project, which has brought together the key players in magnetic data storage from both industry and academia so that their joint work on precompetitive technologies may advance the state of the art in magnetic recording.
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As of January 2001, staffing for the Magnetic Technology Division included 11 full-time permanent positions, of which 10 were for technical professionals. There were also 4 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.
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interim basis by a division chief from the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, with significant support from a Magnetic Technology Division staff member. The panel applauds the work of these two men, who saw the division through its formation.
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As of January 2001, the office had a paid staff of 9, 7 of whom were technical professionals. Funding sources for the Office of Law Enforcement Standards are shown in Table 2.8.
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MAJOR OBSERVATIONS The panel presents the following major observations: · The Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory continues to provide world-class leadership in metrology research and services. The staff are strongly focused on building high-quality programs that meet important industrial needs, and the laboratory is working to strengthen its processes for feedback from its customers to ensure that NIST activities continue to utilize customer input throughout their lifetimes and are effectively disseminated to and implemented by industry.
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· Some improvements were seen at the Boulder facilities this past year, and the planned Advanced Measurement Laboratory at Gaithersburg will do much to satisfy facilities needs 4 years from now. However, there are still many issues at both sites, and ongoing investment in facilities maintenance and upgrades and new construction is necessary to give NIST staff the technical environment they need to perform measurement and standards research and services at the top levels.
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