Nanostar

NANOSTAR (Nano-Structured Ferrolectric Films for Tuneable Acoustic Resonators and Devices) is a new project (STREP) supported by European Commission in the 6th framework program (FP6).

The main objective of the project is development of nanostructured ferroelectric films for microwave applications. Ferroelectrics considered in this project are complex metal oxide dielectrics (Barium and Strontium Titanate-Ba_xSr_1-xTiO₃) characterized by high dielectric permittivity. The dielectric permittivity of these materials is electric field dependent, allowing development of voltage controlled capacitors (varactors) and a large number of microwave components for microwave applications. The devices based on these films offer a substantial reduction of cost, sizes and power consumption, i.e. features useful for power hungry microwave systems, especially in portable/handheld devices such as mobile phones, laptops etc. The devices based on these components are useful also in adaptable/reconfigurable systems consisting of large number of tuneable components, such as large phased arrays and tuneable metamaterials.

The innovations include the nanostructured ferroelectric films with engineered, radically new dielectric properties, and exploitation of new physical effects in nanostructured ferroelectrics for applications in devices with new functionalities. The project aims on further improvement of properties of ferroelectric films and devices based on them in terms of reduction of the temperature dependence, dielectric hysteresis, losses, noise and parameter drift along with increased long term stability and tuneability.

Although the demonstrators will be developed for microwave communications applications, potentially they are useful for optoelectronics and sensor applications. Tuneable TFBARs, which has no analogues in the electronics industry, are one of the typical new devices with new functionality to be considered.

The partners in the project are: Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden (coordinator); Philips Electronics Nederland B.V, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Ericsson AB, Moelndal, Sweden; Temex Filters (SAW) Business Unit of Temex; Sophia Antipolis, France; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Electrotechnical University, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The project started on May 15th, 2005 and the duration of the project is 36 months.

Contact:
Spartak Gevorgian
Co-coordinator
Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience MC2
Chalmers University of Technology
412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
Tel.: +46 31 772 17 27
FAX: +46 31 16 45 13
email: spartak.gevorgian@mc2.chalmers.se
http://www.nanostar-eu.com