Phase II IUCRC at The Pennsylvania State University: Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics: CDP

The Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics (CDP) is a joint industry/university cooperative research center (IUCRC) between North Carolina State University (NCSU) and the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), with an international affiliate site at The University of Sheffield. Dielectric and piezoelectric materials, which can transduce and store energy, are ubiquitous in modern electronics that underpin most transportation, communication, defense and medical technologies. The goals of the CDP are to: 1. Improve the fundamental understanding of dielectric and piezoelectric materials and their device integration; 2. Discover transformative dielectric and piezoelectric materials that support innovative technology advancements and transfer this technology to support new products and processes; 3. Educate students and postdoctoral scholars to become leaders in the research community and create long-term technical impact; 4. Develop unique measurement, characterization, and modeling infrastructure to support industry; 5. Catalyze strategic coupling with other organizations to expand scientific impact and technology transfer; 6. Become the internationally recognized center of excellence in the science, technology, and integration of capacitive and piezoelectric materials. At each step, CDP faculty work closely with industry and national laboratory members to advance the state-of-the-art in dielectric and piezoelectric materials.

CDP research will develop new materials, new metrology methods, new processing methods, and new scientific understanding of dielectric and piezoelectric materials, including lifecycle analysis. The research portfolio will include projects on: 1. Capacitors for extreme environments to address the need for increased voltages and operation temperatures in application areas such as automotive, power electronics, and aerospace/defense systems. Research topics include, for example, understanding the reliability of high voltage and high temperature capacitors. 2. Piezoelectric materials used in ultrasound and precision actuation applications, and will include research on the factors controlling the electrical and electromechanical reliability of piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems. 3. High energy density capacitors for electric vehicles and wearable electronics, including research on thin glass dielectrics. 4. Dielectrics for low-temperature and flexible substrates for foldable and stretchable electronics, including understanding both the fundamental mechanisms that drive cold sintering, as well as the range of systems to which this processing technique can be applied.. 5. Non-linear and high frequency dielectrics for 5G communications, including new measurement methods for low loss high frequency materials.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.