Unit | Bologna UNIT

Bologna Unit

The Section of Bologna of the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems (IMM-Bo), with a staff composed of more than 60 members (researchers, technicians, administrative staff, post-doc fellows) together with several PhD and Master degree students, is a multi-disciplinary research center working since 30 years on the study of materials and devices for microelectronics. The synergy between physics, engineers and chemists provides a global approach to material and device problems, overcoming the classical divisions between disciplinary areas. IMM-Bo can embrace a wide area of knowledge, spanning from material characterization to the study of technological processes, and the design and fabrication of integrated devices.

The Section of Bologna of IMM has on of the biggest publicly funded facility for silicon micro-machining in Italy (located in a 500m2 clean-room with 100 and 1000 class rooms), capable of producing different non-VLSI devices, in particular micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS), using micro-machining techniques for Si, SiC and Quartz substrates, and 3rd generation solar cells and photovoltaic devices. In addition to, and in synergic integration with the Si technologies, at IMM-Bo research activities on carbon-based materials, like carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene and Silicon Carbide, are extensively carried out. IMM-Bo is the Italian hub of the European distributed infrastructure of micro- and nano-fabrication facilities EuroNanoLab (http://euronanolab.eu) and the coordinator of the Italian Network of micro- and nano-fabrication It-fab (http://itfab.bo.imm.cnr.it).

Structural and electrical diagnosis techniques have always played a crucial role in the research activity of IMM-BO, and the laboratory raised as a European excellence in the development and use of electron, ion and X-ray characterization techniques. The research activity in the structural characterization of materials focuses on electron crystallography, dopant profiling or development of imaging techniques for the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) and the low-energy scanning microscope (SEM). At IMM-Bo it has been recently established a Joint Laboratory on Electron Microscopy between University of Bologna and CNR (http://emjoy.bo.imm.cnr.it) focusing on the application and development of in-situ and in-operando TEM-based characterization activities.

Head of the Unit

Vittorio Morandi, Head of the Bologna Unit since September 2015, joined CNR-IMM Bologna in 1999. He graduated and obtained the PhD in Physics at University of Bologna in 2003 and his research activities concern the development of advanced electron microscopy characterization techniques, with a particular focus on SEM and STEM at low and at high energy, the structural characterization of nano-scale materials, in particular low-dimensional carbon allotropes, and synthesis, characterization and technological processing and integration of graphene and graphene-based materials. He authored more than 190 papers with more than 8700 citations and H-index 43 (source Google Scholar). He has participated to about 50 international conferences with invited and oral presentations (for more information see the personal page).

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