The Air Force Office of Scientific Research has selected the Vanderbilt School of Engineering to lead its new Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) on Radiation Effects on Emerging Electronic Materials and Devices.
The new research program will focus on the impact of radiation – both in space and on the ground – on continually shrinking electronic devices and new microelectronic materials.
The members of the multi-university program met for a kick-off meeting held on the Vanderbilt University campus May 9-10. Engineers and scientists from Arizona State University, the University of Florida, the Georgia Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University and Rutgers University joined their Vanderbilt colleagues at the initial meeting.
Ronald D. Schrimpf, Vanderbilt professor of electrical engineering and director of the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics, and principal investigator of the program, said that the kick-off meeting helped solidify the research team and focus the work planned for the next year.
“We have a very strong group of researchers participating in this program, and we expect to generate fundamental research that will prove invaluable in the coming years of electronics development,” he said.
The new program will receive more than $1.1 million per year for three years, with two additional renewal years possible.
This is the second MURI led by the Vanderbilt School of Engineering. Vanderbilt engineers and physicists led an earlier five-year MURI program focusing on radiation-induced degradation of semiconductors.