The US Department of Defense (DoD) recently announced the 2024 funded projects under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP). The grants will support the purchase of major equipment to augment current and develop new research capabilities relevant to the DoD at 120 institutions across 39 states in fiscal year 2024. ECE Florida faculty submitted a number of proposals and four were ultimately chosen for funding.
Farimah Farahmandi
Yangbin Wang Rising Star Assistant Professor Farimah Farahmandi received $290k in funding from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in support of her efforts to equip the Silicon Design & Assurance (SiDA) lab with the ZeBu Emulator framework, manufactured by Synopsys. ZeBu, short for “Zero Bugs Emulation,” is a cutting-edge technology that plays a pivotal role in the development and validation of complex hardware and software systems, enabling engineers to emulate and test their designs before the lengthy step of building physical prototypes.
Philip Feng
Rhines Endowed Professor in Quantum Engineering Philip Feng received funding for his project “High‐Temperature Vacuum Probing and Phase Noise Measurement for Advanced RF/GHz MEMS Resonators and Oscillators.” The funding will allow Dr. Feng to acquire a high-temperature vacuum probe station with electrical measurement system for supporting education and research on advancing radio-frequency (RF) and gigahertz (GHz) MEMS resonators and oscillators, especially those based on advanced semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), aluminum nitride (AlN), and their heterostructures.
The equipment will provide high-temperature, RF/microwave frequency, and low-noise capabilities to complement the existing precision measurement facilities on campus, enabling unique opportunities for investigating various innovative devices and systems at very high temperatures. The integrated system promises an efficient, cost-effective, and reliable solution dedicated to advancing RF/GHz MEMS with wide-bandgap materials to harsh environments.
Sanjeev Koppal
Kent and Linda Fuchs Faculty Fellow Sanjeev Koppal received funding for his project “Electro‐Optical Sensor Prototype with Phase/Amplitude Analysis.” The funding will allow Dr. Koppal to build a support workstation to enhance the use of a computing block, called Electro-Optical Deep Learning Accelerators or EODLAs. The work is funded through the Office of Naval Research. The workstation enabled by this grant will expand the computer block’s capabilities, allowing multiple prototypes to be designed, built, integrated and tested for a variety of stakeholders.
Mark Tehranipoor
Sachio Semmoto Chair Mark Tehranipoor received funding for his project “Dual Beam Laser Interferometry and Ferroelectric Analysis for Physical Assurance of In‐Memory Computing and Sensing Technologies.” The funding will allow the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity (FICS) Research to acquire an Aixacct TF 2000E Analyzer with Semiautomatic Double-Beam Laser Interferometer (aixDBLI) that will support education and research on hardware security and trust assessment of microelectronic devices. The equipment will allow the analysis and characterization of emerging materials and technologies, such as memristors and their crossbar arrays, ferroelectric thin films and transistors, and other novel in-memory computing devices.
The aixDBLI can perform these cutting-edge analyses and measurement, as well as calibrate and detect malfunction, nonuniformity, hysteresis, degradation, aging, hardware attacks and security issues within the in-memory computing chips and other IC specimens. These features make it superior to conventional 3D X-ray tomography and Scanning Electron Microscopy. The integration of the aixDBLI into FICS Research SeCurity and AssuraNce (SCAN) laboratory, which supports 20 faculty and over 150 PhD students, will establish a novel workflow for advanced packaging and interposer level security and assurance.
Read the press release, including link to full list of recipients here.