Following two years in a preparatory course in Morocco, and three years at Grenoble INP Phelma studying nanotechnology, Nada Zerhouni Abdou joined CEA-Leti for an internship, before doing her thesis on the characterization of SOI substrates using an EZ-FET. This device features several advantages in terms of planetary resources, since it requires significantly fewer stages compared to a standard transistor. Her device is now ready to be integrated into a low-temperature substrate for characterization following source and drain doping and dopant activation using nanosecond laser annealing. Next stage: finding an alternative for EZ-FET substrate integration that does not require doping. Nada received the Best Young Award for her innovating scientific results given her young age.
« During my internship, when I saw the mobile clean room go by, I knew that I wanted to do my thesis at CEA-Leti so that I could one day climb onboard, too! »
Following a PhD in materials chemistry, Philippe Rodriguez has been working at CEA-Leti for ten years. His research findings on germanium-tin (GeSn) junctions all involve the same issue: the instability of tin makes it quite fragile when contact between the two layers is created using regular annealing process, which can cause it to segregate. To tackle this, Philippe uses a nanosecond annealing process, which creates a solid-state reaction between nickel and the GeSn component. This both reduces the thermal budget and stabilizes the junction while retaining the desired photonic properties. Philippe received the Best Paper Award for a solution that could have a significant impact for the scientific community.
« Innovation is a collective process. By drawing on everyone’s expertise, we can go further to push the boundaries of possibility. »
Acknowledgments:
Andrea Quintero, Jean-Michel Hartmann, Pablo Acosta Alba, Vincent Reboud, Patrice Gergaud, Laurent Brunet, Matthieu Opprecht, Frédéric Milesi, Manon Gallard, Shay Reboh, Irina Ionica, Aurelien sarrazin