Emerging Materials & Technologies
Welcome to the future of materials innovation! At FSI, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of the exciting field of emerging novel materials. Our commitment to pushing boundaries and exploring new frontiers has led us to integrate groundbreaking materials that are revolutionizing industries and transforming how we live and work. Emerging novel materials are cutting-edge substances that possess unique properties and functionalities, surpassing traditional materials in various aspects. These materials are often the result of breakthroughs in scientific research, advancements in nanotechnology, or ingenious combinations of existing materials. They have the potential to reshape industries, drive innovation, and improve the quality of life for people around the globe.
At FSI, we are passionate about harnessing the power of emerging novel materials to drive progress and create a positive impact. Our dedicated team of researchers, engineers, and scientists work tirelessly to explore, develop, and apply these materials across a wide range of industries. We specialize in identifying and working with materials that exhibit exceptional properties, such as superior strength, conductivity, optoelectronic and electro-optic response, flexibility, durability, and adaptability. By leveraging these properties, we can create solutions that were once considered impossible. Our expertise spans various sectors, including:
Electronics and Optics: We develop material integration techniques that enable faster, smaller, and more efficient electronic and electro-optic devices, as well as cutting-edge optical components for advanced communication systems and high-resolution displays—flexible substrates, hybrid integration of materials, heterogeneous integration solutions, etc.
Energy and Environment: Our focus is on materials that contribute to low-energy operations, energy storage, and sustainable environmental solutions. We are pioneers in developing solutions for next-generation solar cells, batteries, and catalysts for clean energy production from materials like Mxene, Graphene, etc.
Healthcare and Biotechnology: We strive to improve healthcare outcomes by developing materials for drug delivery sensors, medical devices, and technological diagnostics devices. In-situ body health monitoring using lasing and high sensitive detectors along with training systems with neural network machine learning for understanding patterns Our innovative materials have the potential to revolutionize patient care and health monitoring systems for efficient drug delivery and diagnostics.
Collaboration and Partnerships
We understand that the journey to material innovation is best undertaken together. We actively seek collaborations and partnerships with industry leaders, academic institutions, and research organizations to foster knowledge exchange, accelerate development, and push the boundaries of what is possible.
Join Us on the Path to the Future
By working with FSI, you gain access to the latest advancements in emerging novel materials. Our team of experts is ready to collaborate, provide solutions, and guide you through the exciting possibilities these materials offer. Together, let’s unlock the potential of emerging novel materials and shape a brighter, more sustainable future for all. Contact us today to embark on this transformative journey.
Electronic Design & Automation (EDA) & Assurance
Electronic Design Automation & Assurance play vital roles in the semiconductor ecosystem, at FSI we strongly encourage research in these fields. VLSI design plays a key role in the development of new technologies and bringing those technologies to market, research in to reliable and testable VLSI plays a key role in EDA. Further developing design synthesis procedures for new technologies serves an invaluable purpose to the advancement of all technologies.
Assurance is increasingly important topic in electronic design. Creating methodologies to detect and prevent counterfeit ICs is a pivotal task in creating trusted technologies for all applications. Along with this research in to reverse engineering both to learn more and prevent it, contributes to chip security. Research in these fields includes the usage of advanced inspection techniques, including 3D X-ray imaging, scanning electron beam imaging, focused ion-beams, and THz imaging combined with image processing.
Advanced Packaging & Heterogeneous Integration
| FSI also strongly believes in heterogeneous integration to connect disparate technologies onto one platform. Bringing expertise in optical interconnects, through-silicon vias (TSVs) & 2.5D integration, and silicon interposers. We are deeply invested in the evolution of optical interconnects in semiconductor systems, understanding their potential in managing high data rates, power efficiency, and electromagnetic interference reduction. This involves exploring new materials, fabrication processes, and layout techniques, as well as developing models to predict the performance of these optical interconnects under a variety of operating conditions. 2.5D integration involves positioning separate dies adjacent to one another on a silicon interposer connected via TSVs, this strategy contrasts with the vertical stacking of dies in 3D integration and has potential performance benefits. Our team is pioneering work in the design and fabrication of silicon interposers. These crucial components act as electrical interfaces that route between different sockets or connections.
FSI is dedicated to the advancement of heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging, as an integral part of the semiconductor design process packaging and heterogeneous integration make new technologies usable at a commercial level. Advanced packaging is a front that is continually pushed from security design at hardware level to packaging for unique and harsh environments. FSI has expertise that is deeply invested in the next generation security to prevent and detect counterfeit technologies, reverse engineering and designing physical layer securities. |
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Test & Rapid Prototyping Vehicles (RPV)
FSI supports and encourages developments in rapid prototyping and characterization techniques from device to system level. Both academic and industry innovation can be propelled forward with the development and implementation of rapid prototyping, reducing both time to market and time to publication. Academically innovation has been shown quite heavily on the device level, with new techniques for novel two-dimensional material (TDM) integration reducing time for device fabrication and increasing the reliability and yield of devices. Significant improvements have also been made in microfluidic devices showing one-step manufacturing processes in different forms including stereo- and photolithography reducing concept-to-chip intervals down to mere hours. Steps are also being taken to introduce rapid and smart prototyping on an industrial scale focusing on low-volume production. Undertakings like Fraunhofer IISB’s π-Fab focus on rapid prototyping with industry compatible processes and using smart fabrication procedures.
Advanced characterization processes are required for fast development, in conjunction with rapid prototyping techniques. At FSI we strongly believe in advanced characterization in the semiconductor industry for both increased production speeds and higher fidelity chips. Advanced characterization can be utilized from device level throughout the semiconductor process all the way to packaging and interconnects. Starting at the device level FSI utilizes automated probe stations to quickly and accurately test chips allowing for an efficient design and optimization process. FSI is also highly interested in the characterization of semiconductor packaging in terms of thermal, electrical, mechanical and RF stability, to ensure semiconductor devices can be used without fail in everyday applications. Finally, post-silicon validation is an important step in the semiconductor development process to characterize and potentially fix systems from an operational point of view, allowing for efficient use of the semiconductor technology.
ASICs & AI Accelerators
Artificial Intelligence is the foundation for the new industrial revolution that the world is about to start. As with all industrial revolutions, they need their fuel to deliver their full potential. For AI, this fuel is represented by computational systems capable of performing all the mathematical calculations that Machine Learning applications require. At FSI, we are leading the research to bring new tools for the next generation of computing systems for AI, whether they are in data centers, or the palm of your hand.
This research field includes new technologies and exciting discoveries. Application Specific (Photonic) Integrated Circuit, AS(P)IC, are the new paradigm to overcome the limitations of traditional transistor-based digital electronics. Such new circuits can be based on new circuits, such as MEMS, to produce analog electronic signals, or on photonics circuits, where photons are used to perform linear and nonlinear operations on the fly. FSI is not only involved in the research on these topics but also in how to integrate those different approaches and chips into a single chiplet.
At FSI, we are working on integrating different chips into a single package chip, called chiplet. By doing so, we can leverage the best of all worlds (digital electronics, analog electronics, MEMS, photonics), and return a new chiplet-based accelerator for the future generation of AI systems. Working closely with partners in universities, industries, and research agencies, we are shaping the foundation of the world of tomorrow.
Optoelectronics & Photonics
Photonics is a rapidly expanding field, being very successful at the commercial level for data center applications but also growing & maturing for accelerator technologies. At FSI we are committed to designing, investigating, and testing new photonic components and architectures. Our expertise is focused around photonic integrated circuits (PICs), application specific photonic integrated circuits (AsPICs), and the components that make them up. Our work focuses on high bandwidth computations and communications, having designed PICs for AI/ML and partial differential equation solver acceleration. Also designing a photonic random access memory (PRAM) to further aid photonic circuits, decreasing the communication with standard electronic RAM module. Research also focuses on integration of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) utlizing comb lasers and frequency filters to increase photonic channels and increase bandwidths.
MEMS, RF/mmWave, and IoT
With these new mmWave & MEMs technologies a door is opened to make many new smart devices contributing to the internet of things. We at FSI are dedicated to making smart devices not only more efficient and practical, but also to making them secure. FSI has experts focusing their efforts on low power systems, robust systems, implantable devices, wearable devices and hardware level security. Work in these fields involves low power design techniques, bio-electrical/chemical/mechanical interfaces, and design level protections to ensure smart devices work as intended for all. (image source: RFpage.com)