The U.S. Office of Naval Research awards Delaware State University a four year grant.
The $799,947 award focuses on developing transistors that require very low power to operate. The results are expected to benefit the military’s sensing and detection capabilities in the field.
Physics and Engineering professor Mukti Rana and DSU students will study the use of rare aluminum nitride in ferroelectrics to achieve the low operating power results.
“The device which has been proposed in this grant is to use the self charge which will be generated from the material itself, and could be used in different low power devices, which is a key for different hand-held devices such as detectors, sensors, cameras - anything you can think of - electronics mainly.”
Rana says that, as with much military research, the findings will be valuable far beyond just military use.
“These electronic devices not only contribute to the handheld devices, they also contribute to 5G to 6G wireless networks as well. So this is part of the bigger picture of this whole project.”
The University of Delaware is also involved in the research - with Dennis Prather, a Alumni Distinguished Professor in UD’s College of Engineering, working with Rana on the larger project.