Three UAE National graduate students from Masdar Institute have embarked on a two-week internship at GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the world鈥檚 second largest semiconductor foundry company, wholly-owned by Abu Dhabi鈥檚 Mubadala Development Company, in Dresden, Germany.
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A semiconductor power-house with advanced operational and technology capabilities, the GLOBALFOUNDRIES facility in Dresden, known as Fab 1, is one of the company鈥檚 most advanced 300mm semiconductor manufacturing site, and is credited as one of the most innovative and productive manufacturers of integrated circuits in 28 nanometer (nm) technologies.
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Dr. Behjat AlYousuf, Interim Provost, Masdar Institute, said, 鈥淲e are pleased to see three of Masdar Institute鈥檚 UAE nationals take on this incredible opportunity to intern at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Internships like these underscore Masdar Institute鈥檚 commitment to developing the country鈥檚 indigenous human capital. We hope that the knowledge gained by these young Emiratis will translate into engineering innovations, contributing to the growth of the UAE鈥檚 knowledge economy and nascent semiconductor industry. With the support of the UAE leadership, we will continue to offer internship opportunities with top-level global corporations and we hope the program will benefit everyone involved.鈥�
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A report from Reuters predicts the global microchip market to reach US$355 billion by 2016. Masdar Institute aims to position Abu Dhabi at the forefront of the growing semiconductor industry by developing skilled human capital capable of producing next-generation microchip technologies.
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Badreyya AlShehhi and Hamad Alblooshi, MSc students from Masdar Institute鈥檚 Microsystems Engineering program, along with Noora M. AlSheehi, a MSc student from the Electrical Power Engineering program, will gain firsthand experience in the design of nano-sized integrated circuits, which is integral to their thesis research projects.
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Dr. Mihai Sanduleanu, Associate Professor, Microsystems Engineering, Masdar Institute, is supervisor to the three students and expects that each student will develop patents and form start-ups around the microchips they will begin to develop at Dresden.
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Speaking about the internship, Dr. Sanduleanu explained, 鈥淭he students will have access to state-of-the-art facilities and technology provided by GLOBALFOUNDRIES in Dresden, including their cleanroom. Additionally, they will get training in computer-aided design (CAD) for integrated circuit design, digital design flow, analog design flow and layout, as well as on-wafer measurements.鈥�
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AlShehhi鈥檚 thesis seeks to develop an ultra-low power (ULP) wireless transceiver solution for connecting different electronic devices, such as radio-frequency identification tags, sensors, and mobile phones, with a master device. The transceiver will have no external components, except a battery, and will have an on-chip integrated antenna.
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鈥淭his internship will help me to obtain new skills and allow me to deeply understand the topic of my MSc thesis work,鈥� AlShehhi said.
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鈥淚t is a great opportunity to network with experienced analog/radio frequency designers and to share ideas and feedback. I expect that I鈥檒l get a better understanding of how semiconductor fabrication works and I am eager to visit the cleanroom to see the process flow of the technology,鈥� she added.
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The aim of AlSheehi鈥檚 research is to develop an 鈥榠nvisible鈥� identification tag that will operate without battery or external components. The device could be embedded in banknotes, identification cards, books, jewelry, or mobile phones. One potential application of the identification tag is to certify if the object that it is embedded on is fake or genuine.
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AlSheehi said, 鈥淭his internship is a great opportunity because it will give me the chance to develop the skills and confidence I need so that I can start designing my circuits. It will give me an opportunity to understand the details of the integrated circuit design.鈥�
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Alblooshi is developing a microchip that, when placed on a flexible photovoltaic (PV) cell, will boost the energy efficiency of the cell. Currently, flexible PV cells have a photovoltaic efficiency of only 10%, which means that they can only convert 10% of the sun鈥檚 energy into electricity. With Alblooshi鈥檚 proposed microchip, which connects to an antenna printed on the back side of the photovoltaic cell, the chip will be able to harvest more energy from the crowded, low GHz part of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as the radio waves 鈥� an area of the electromagnetic spectrum that PV cells are unable to harness.
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Alblooshi said, 鈥淢y internship in Dresden will provide me with valuable insight on the fabrication of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. This insight will be extremely valuable as I design my hybrid electromagnetic and solar energy harvester at Masdar Institute.鈥�
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Masdar Institute has a longstanding relationship with GLOBALFOUNDRIES, where it has previously sent interns in 2013, including Masdar Institute PhD students Wala Saadeh and Muhammad Awais Bin Altaf. Masdar Institute faculty and students have access to GLOBALFOUNDRIES鈥� Abu Dhabi-based laboratory, where they have developed semiconductor designs for 28nm microchips 鈥� a process known as 鈥榯ape-out鈥� 鈥� which will be manufactured in GLOBALFOUNDRIES鈥� Fab 1. Mohamed Lakehal, Senior Manager of Technology Research Enablement at GLOBALFOUNDRIES, manages the R&D partnership with Masdar Institute.
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Through its backing of the Mubadala Technology-SRC Center of Excellence for Energy Efficient Electronic Systems 鈥� which helps create a regional ecosystem in the areas of design and testing of integrated energy efficient micro-systems 鈥� and its commitment to broadening the local technology workforce, Masdar Institute is driving innovation in next-generation electronic systems and contributing to Abu Dhabi鈥檚 sustainable knowledge economy transformation.
Erica Solomon
News and Features Writer
20 June 2015
