It is recognised that the performances of electronic devices, circuits and related subsystems are drastically impacted by thermal issues, and by the associated reliability issues. The most classical solution today is to let the heat spreading into the component structure; the heat is then removed on a larger area through the packaging stack. The efficiency of the thermal cooling solutions increases as they are located closer to the heat sources. The BoroGaN project proposes to study the impact of a self-aligned Boron Nitride (BN) thin film that will be deposited on top of a Gallium Nitride-based (GaN) transistor, in the closest vicinity of the active zone, where the heat is generated. This unique aligned film has its basal planes oriented perpendicularly to the substrate. This nano-structured material thus has a much improved thermal conductivity in the z-axis compared with its nominal counterparts. This approach should improve drastically the efficiency of dissipated power removal. The High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) are subject to intense current densities and high electric fields (several MV/cm). During operation, the estimated temperature of the channel increases significantly. A reduction of the operating temperature by 35°C would lead to more than tenfold device lifetime improvement. A new technological building block based on high thermal conductivity BN will be developed, which will be compatible with microelectronics processes. The BN deposition technique will allow room temperature deposition, i.e. will be compatible with the other technological steps. Moreover the BN shows suitable physical properties for heat spreader with a high thermal conductivity (>450 W.m-1.K-1), a high breakdown electric field (>5 MV/cm), a high electrical resistivity (1E12 Ohm.cm). The last parameter is important to give rise to low microwave losses up to 60 GHz. The work programme is broke down in the following way. The first work package is devoted to the growth, optimization and characterization of BN thin films on various substrates. 3-5 Lab will fabricate specific elementary devices as MIM structures for electrical BN characterisation. The second work package is dedicated to the application of BN thin films for the GaN HEMT heat-spreader. 3-5 Lab will elaborate GaN-based heterostructures and microwave transistors to allow the growth of BN on top of devices. These transistors will be characterised through static, dynamic and load-pull measurements. Finally, the devices will be characterised thermally during operation with the thermoreflectance technique. This non-contact optical method shows excellent spatial resolutions of the order of 200–500 nm. The thermal resistance values for the structures with and without BN heatspreader will be measured and compared. In terms of economic impact, communications and power electronics are the main markets where GaN devices are expected to achieve the most significant commercial impact. Indeed, their high power density at high frequencies make them choice candidates for a large set of electronic applications. The complementary expertise of the BoroGaN partners (CINTRA/NTU, 3-5 Lab and CNRS-neurophotonique), will enable the demonstration of innovative BN top heat spreaders for the improvement of GaN HEMTs. Furthermore the low thermal budget will let the use of this technology to other devices using for instance silicon carbide or gallium arsenide semiconductors. The project responds to the Materials, Nanotechnologies and Nanosystems themes of the joint ANR/NRF Grant Call 2016. The project responds to ANR Challenge 3 "Stimualte Industrial Renewal" / Axis 3 "Materials and Processes" and French National Research Strategy Orientation 14 "Conception of New Materials". The project will focus on the development of room-temperature nano-crystalline BN materials applied to the micro- and nano-meter size fabrication and characterisation of Gallium Nitride HEMT.

Dilute nitride materials are the material system that enables photonic devices working at the optical telecommunication wavelengths of 1300 and 1550nm on a low cost GaAs platform instead of the incumbent InP substrates. This allows the devices to be developed on a more robust substrate type that is commercially available at a larger size. Until now, a suitable material for photoconductive (PC) switching at 1550nm wavelength does not exist. In this project, we propose to use novel dilute nitride material, GaNAsSb, for ultra-fast photoconductive switch designed to work at 1550nm optical communication wavelengths. This project aims to solve key technical challenges to obtain high dark resistivity and sub-picosecond carrier lifetime, and to improve the ON/OFF ratio and bandwidth. The project will be divided into two sequential phases; Phase I being the material growth and characterization and Phase II the PC switch device development and characterization. Note that the different core abilities of the Singapore and French teams allow these project phases to be developed in parallel should the need arises. The objective of Phase I is to control the epitaxy processes to obtain suitable GaNAsSb properties for photoconductive switch application such as suitable bandgap energy, (sub)picosecond carrier lifetime, and high dark resistivity towards 1M?.cm. This is mainly achieved by tuning the GaNAsSb substrate temperature and the flux ratio of group V/III elements during growth to optimize the formation of arsenic antisites. In Phase II, a series of device wafers based on the results of Phase I will be grown, fabricated and characterized. The objective of Phase II is to optimize the fabrication procedures and to conduct ON/OFF ratio and bandwidth measurement on the PC switch devices under 1550nm laser excitation. PC switch with low contact resistance to minimize insertion loss will improve ON/OFF ratio towards 40dB and high bandwidth beyond 20GHz. If the project is successful, the photoconductive switch developed here will be an important component in optical communication, particularly in microwave switching and signal sampling. The 1550nm PC switch technology may also be applied to other applications such as terahertz detection/generation.

In the last few years we have seen unprecedented advances in quantum information technologies. Already quantum key distribution systems are available commercially. In the near future we will see waves of new quantum devices, offering unparalleled benefits for security, communication, computation and sensing. A key question to the success of this technology is their verification and validation. Quantum technologies encounter an acute verification and validation problem: On one hand, since classical computations cannot scale-up to the computational power of quantum mechanics, verifying the correctness of a quantum-mediated computation is challenging. On the other hand, the underlying quantum structure resists classical certification analysis. Members of our consortium have shown, as a proof-of-principle, that one can bootstrap a small quantum device to test a larger one. The aim of VanQuTe is to adapt our generic techniques to the specific applications and constraints of photonic systems being developed within our consortium. Our ultimate goal is to develop techniques to unambiguously verify the presence of a quantum advantage in near future quantum technologies. We will develop experimental test beds and the theoretical framework for verification of diverse quantum technologies including sub-universal quantum computation (boson sampling and instantaneous quantum computation (IQP)), secure quantum communication and quantum sensing and imaging. We will use a three-layered approach to target the development and demonstration of quantum advantage for emerging near future quantum devices. In the core Verification layer we address the key challenge of certifying and verifying quantum information processing beyond the classical regime. This will provide us a crucial interface between our target Applications layer (secure communication, sensing and sub-universal quantum computation) and Implementations layer (photonics hardware). This ambitious project will call on expertise stretching across two groups in France (LIP6 and LORIA) and three in Singapore (SUTD, NUS, NTU), building on a strong history of collaboration. Indeed our French and Singaporean members together pioneered the verification methods we will be adapting and applying across our proposal. The consortium complements this with the expertise required in communication theory, foundational physics, quantum protocols and optical implementations. This project will inevitably forge stronger relations between Singapore and France in this exciting domain and more broadly as the work is disseminated through public engagement and outreach. The ability to communicate securely and compute efficiently is ever more important to society. Our approach to development of verifiable quantum hardware within our experimental testbeds will eventually be complemented with development of real-world applications geared towards industrial involvement.

Metallic FCC-BCC nanolayers, such as Cu/Nb, have received wide attention due to their extraordinary mechanical properties as well as the unique self-healing capacities due to the interface characteristics. Most recently, the materials have also been shown to exhibit significant and tunable interfacial sliding mechanisms (based on defect structures in the interface). The significant interfacial sliding is all along while maintaining full contact between the layers, and thus one could expect negligible resistance increase upon straining, which would be attractive for stretchable metallic conductor technology. The interfacial sliding has been modeled with some combination of diffusional and displacive mechanisms - the extreme extents of which are afforded by the nanoscale layering in the materials. The exact mechanisms continue to be fully investigated with in situ mechanical testing allowing the direct observation of the interfacial sliding events inside an SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) or on a synchrotron beamline, as well as many other characterization techniques. In this proposal, we aim to harness the unique capacity for atomic reconfigurations in the FCC/BCC nanolayers to enable stretchable metallic conductors. This approach of using atomic reconfigurations (instead of the structural reconfigurations in existing metallic stretchable technologies) is novel and, due to the associated diffusional and displacive mechanisms strictly in the interface (thus maintaining contact all the while), could lead to potentially new, breakthrough metallic stretchable materials - stretchable (and recoverable) without compromising the electrical conductivity upon significant mechanical deformation, as well as upon long operational duration (durability). Stretchable conductors are important part of stretchable electronics, which could lead to many important technologies such as artificial skin, muscle, limb as well as soft robotics and human-machine interfaces. To accomplish the goals of this project, one needs to make work together experts in mechanics, in situ mechanical testing in SEM or on synchrotron beamlines, characterizing crystal and interfacial defects and stretchable technology. The Street Art Nano project brings together these complementary expertise: " Prof. Arief Budiman of Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), in Singapore, has a strong background in fracture mechanics, deformation behaviors and microstructure evolution of novel (nanoscale) materials. " Prof. Olivier Thomas of Aix Marseille Université (AMU) and CNRS (IM2NP UMR 7334), in Marseille, has a strong background on applying X-ray nano-diffraction techniques to understand the mechanics and defect structures of nanoscale materials. " Prof. Pooi-See Lee of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), in Singapore, has a strong background in novel stretchable materials and technology, and especially in enabling metallic stretchable conductors technology.

Skin loss through non-fatal burns and ulcers are a leading cause of morbidity, including prolonged hospitalization. It is often poorly managed, requiring the frequent changing of single-use wound dressings. This generates a significant amount of contaminated waste globally that is either incinerated or disposed of in landfill. The complexity of burn and chronic skin ulceration wound healing, compared to other skin injuries, requires the development of sustainable and advanced regenerative wound dressings. This proposal aims to develop a biodegradable 3D bioprinted hydrogel wound dressing. This device will encapsulate immortalized foetal keratinocytes and fibroblasts or their extracted secretome. The secretome can accelerate wound healing by inducing the stimulation of skin stem cells. The wound dressing will provide controlled therapeutic levels of biomolecule delivery, protection from wound-secreted proteases, and an external abrasions safeguard. The device will employ engineered biodegradable and compostable biomaterials, contributing to the transition from a major waste stream to a sustainable alternative wound healing device.