Nano Engineering and Materials (NEMs) Research Group
Research Team
Artificial Intelligence Research Unit (AiRU)
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sabah
Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
ABOUT US
The Nano Engineering and Materials (NEMs) Research Group is a research group that combines the expertise from Electrical and Electronics, Physic Electronics and Civil Engineering programs. Initially, the group was named Nano Electronics Device and Materials with acronym as ‘NICER’. However, to keep up with the current research focus and direction, we finally make a consensus decision of using NEMs.
The NEMs group had its beginnings in 2009 focus in engaging viable solutions to design nano-device structure, discovering advance nano-material and exploring innovative nano-modelling product and system. The research covering wide spectrum area involving nanodevices, nanosensors, nanomodelling & simulation, nanomaterials, nanocoatings, nanocomposite membrane, renewable energy and nanosystems design.
Background
Nanotechnology is the creation of useful or functional materials, devices and systems through the control of matter on the nanometer (nm) scale (typically but not exclusively below 100nm) and exploitation of novel phenomena and properties (physical, chemical, biological) at that length scale for specific applications. A report compiled by the OECD (2009) highlighted that 63% concentration of research by patents granted in the nanotechnology sector are in nanomaterials and nanoelectronics.
For the past several decades, miniaturization in silicon integrated circuits (IC’s) has progressed steadily with an exponential rise in the number of transistors on a chip as projected by Moore’s Law (Moore, 1965). This tremendous progress meant that channel length (Lg) of a transistors are reduced by a factor of two every three years, while chip density increases by a factor of four over this period. This continual shrinking size of transistors into nano-meter regime has led to increased high-speed performance and packing density in silicon chips used in compact electronic systems. However, conventional scaling below 100nm has set a number of limiting technological features that pose challenges to the evolution of CMOS technology.
In discovering new design to implement such nano-size nanoelectronics device and systems, three approaches are pertinent: Adopting a new device structure, use a different material set and exploring a different carrier transport mechanism. Findings viable solution of such difficulty will be the central theme in exploring the research area of nanoelectronics.
New nanomaterials will find their way into almost all new and future technologies. In that regards, some of the significant applications that will be manifested in this research group are:
(1) the incorporation of new nanoparticle-reinforced and light-weight materials in transport technologies;
(2) revolutionary designs for new storage media based on nanolayers and quantum dots;
(3) drug delivery will be revolutionized through new pharmaceutical nanomaterials;
(4) future energy storage in batteries and fuel cells will be significantly enhanced with new charge separation nanomaterials and
(5) Nanostructure membranes, nanostructured meta-materials and inorganic-organic hybrid materials.