On May 15, Professor John Robertson, distinguished Fellow of the Royal Society, delivered a lecture entitled “Future of electronics and where new materials theory can help” at the Old Library, one of the earliest historical buildings of Wuhan University.
Prof. John Robertson at Luojia Forum
Professor John Robertson is a professor of Electronic Engineering at Cambridge University. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Materials Research Society, and an Emeritus editor of the journal Diamond and Related Materials.
He has published over 600 journal papers with over 33,000 citations, which makes him a highly cited ISI author in materials science. His research interests cover general electronic materials, such as materials for the Complementory Metal-Oxide Semiconductor(CMOS) gate stack, high dielectric constant oxides, thin film transistors, including amorphous semiconducting oxides, carbon nanotubes, graphene, diamond-like carbon, and chemical vapor deposition(CVD) processes.
WHUers are listening to Prof. Robertson’s lecture
In his lecture, Prof. Robertson offered a historical account of the semiconductor industry and the obstacles it faced in its further development. He pointed out that the dominance of Si/SiO₂ posed difficulties for the making of semiconductors, due to the limitation of this kind of material, while also acknowledging the current frontier of this industry. He discussed the introduction of multiple new materials in the area of “Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Transistors” (CMOS) in order to upgrade the technology. Prof. Robertson took HfO₂ as an example, highlighting that HfO₂ could replace SiO₂ based on thermodynamics and band offset criteria. At the end of his lecture, he cast some light on the fact that, “memory is of great significance, storage class memory is rather interesting, but 3D Fe Random Access Memory(FeRAM) will be critical.” He also drew a conclusion that new materials are needed but, so far, the current development is somewhat disappointing.
At the end of his lecture, Prof. Robertson patiently answered questions posed by the students present. The forum drew to a close with huge applause and great appreciation.
Prof. John Roberson with WHU students and faculties in front of the Old Library
Photo by Sun Xihong
Edited by Xu Yixian, Wei Junyi
