AMRC Assists Student Researcher’s Novel Work in Semiconductor Science
Graduate research assistant David Kelly, 28, dons gloves and shoe covers in preparation for entering the cleanroom of the Microelectronics Center at UT's J.J. Pickle Research Campus in north Austin.
The UT-Austin graduate research assistant, who in grade school wrote computer games with his little brother on his Commodore 64, was fascinated with dinosaurs, and loved watching science TV shows such as “Nova,” is now part of the AMRC research team that’s seeking ways to guide Texas technology into the 21st Century.
“I’ve always loved science,” says the 28 year old doctoral student in electrical engineering. “And the AMRC is a great place to do high-tech research. The staff provides the resources we need and handles all the paperwork, so graduate students like me can go about our daily business of looking at new processes and materials for semiconductors.”
Kelly, who works at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in North Austin and lives nearby with his wife, Julia, and two-year-old son, Dawson, is seeking a novel way to develop transistors, the tiny “brain cells” in every semiconductor. One of his current approaches is to use a germanium carbide alloy (a compound of the elements germanium and carbon) as the transistor channel material and integrate it onto a conventional silicon wafer.
“Germanium carbide crystal has been synthesized on silicon substrates before, but nobody has made transistors out of it,” he says. “The idea is to create a new kind of transistor that can exploit the higher currents inherent to germanium-based materials, and still retain all of the electrical properties we need for it to function effectively.”
Continually reducing the size of transistors, circuits and other chip elements is key to making semiconductors faster and more powerful. High-functioning transistors are one of the reasons why today’s cell phones can record voices, take pictures, and receive calls from all over the world. Likewise, densely packed transistors are part of the secret behind the fast-moving, action-packed video games that enthrall children and adults alike.
The power of transistors to make many human activities faster, more convenient, and more entertaining is one of the reasons that Kelly was lured to semiconductor science from an undergraduate emphasis in computational physics. “I took a class in semiconductor processing and saw how to make transistors,” he recalls. “I loved it and got interested in semiconductors right away. Then I decided I wanted to go to graduate school and work with them.”
Not surprisingly, Kelly is bullish on the future of chips, sometimes dismissed as a mature technology with limited room for innovation. “I think semiconductors have a long way to go,” he says. “The technology is well established by now, and we know a lot about how it works. But instead of scaling [making devices proportionately smaller], you’ll see novel types of materials and different engineering approaches.”
A Texan almost since birth (his parents brought him to El Paso at age one), Kelly spent his teenage years in the East Texas town of Kilgore and – thanks to his father’s job as a telecommunications company executive – lived in several other Lone Star cities as well. His favorite place is Dallas, where he spent his senior year in high school. “I’ve lived all over the state, and this is my home,” he says. “I think there’s enough technology here to let me spend my entire career in Texas.”
Not that Kelly is opposed to travel: at age 20, he left Texas for a two-year missionary assignment in northern Peru. He became fluent in Spanish but “forgot calculus,” returning afterward to earn a bachelor’s degree in applied physics from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. He migrated to UT-Austin to study electrical engineering, receiving a master’s degree in December 2003.
Before graduating from BYU in 2002, Kelly also took the brave step of getting married, a status that can be challenging for a graduate student without what he calls “a real job.”
“You have to be really frugal to do the family stuff and work on a PhD at the same time,” he says. “Fortunately, my wife and family are really supportive, and the support I receive for my research helps make it all possible.” His current course will find him with a doctorate in electrical engineering by the end of 2006 – after which he plans to work as an R&D engineer for about 10 years, and then become an engineering professor.
“This is an amazing time for technology in Texas,” says Kelly, “and I want to be a part of it.”