Electronics and Nanotechnology
At Georgia Tech, research in the complementary fields of electronics and nanotechnology—supported by strengths in related areas such as biomedicine, materials, and policy—provides the foundation for a broad range of advances with industrial applications. Georgia Tech has deep expertise and longstanding experience in electronics and semiconductors, and has become a national leader in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This convergence has led to developments such as epitaxial graphene for high-speed electronics, silicon germanium for specialized electronics, system-on-package technology, and zinc oxide structures for nanogenerators and other small-scale devices.
Major areas of electronics research include microelectronics, sensors, defense electronics, packaging technology, wireless communications, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), quantum systems, photovoltaics, and advanced electronic materials. Major research areas in nanotechnology include piezoelectric nanogenerators and nanodevices, diagnostic and therapeutic nanoparticles, nanoscale sensors, and other nanometer-scale structures.
Regents professor Zhong Lin Wang received a 2011 MRS
Medal for his work on zinc oxide nanowires and
nanobelts for a broad range of applications. Full Story >
Research in electronics and nanotechnology is conducted in Georgia Tech academic units, as well as at Georgia Tech’s interdisciplinary centers and applied research organizations. Specialized research facilities include the new Marcus Nanotechnology Building and the Joseph M. Pettit Microelectronics Research Building. The Marcus Nanotechnology Building provides an innovative combination of traditional inorganic clean room space adjacent to a clean room designed for research at the interface between life sciences and nanotechnology. These areas are physically connected to allow research samples to be transferred between them. This connectivity helps foster novel designs and applications through interdisciplinary research collaboration.
Both the Marcus Nanotechnology Building and the Joseph M. Pettit Microelectronics Research Building are part of the Nanotechnology Research Center. Beyond Georgia Tech faculty and students, this center serves scientists and engineers from industry, government laboratories, and other universities. As the Southeast United States node for the National Science Foundation’s National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), the center provides connections to collaborators throughout the United States.
