By David Murphy

KAUST Ph.D. student Yue Yuan recently won the Saudi Arabian Falling Walls Lab and will now represent KAUST and the Kingdom at the prestigious Falling Walls Science Summit 2023.
The event, which will be held in Berlin, Germany, on November 7-9, 2023, will serve as a space to explore the forefront of scientific breakthroughs developed by students and early-career professionals and emerging trends shaping our world in 2023.

Yuan's presentation, titled "Breaking the Wall of Energy-Hungry Electronics," highlighted the Advanced Nanoelectronics Laboratory at KAUST’s work on two-dimensional (2D)/ complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) microchips. Led by Professor Mario Lanza, the group’s research attempts to solve one of the semiconductor industry’s most significant goals: exploiting the high-quality electronic properties of 2D materials to fabricate advanced electronic circuits.  

“In this field, most studies have been limited to the fabrication and characterization of isolated, large (more than 1 µm²) devices on unfunctional SiO₂–Si substrates. Some studies have integrated monolayer graphene on silicon microchips as a large-area (more than 500 µm²) interconnection and as a channel of large transistors (roughly 16.5 µm²),” Yuan explained. “However, in all cases, the microchip integration density was low, no computation was demonstrated, and manipulating monolayer 2D materials was challenging.”
With its small size, competitive performance and on-chip integration, the KAUST-designed prototype has the highest performance and technology readiness level ever achieved in the field of 2D-materials-based electronic circuits. The research represents a significant step towards post-silicon electronics.

“Our hybrid 2D/CMOS microchips combine the robust performance of ubiquitous silicon electronics with the superior electronic properties of 2D materials. We demonstrate memristive memory cells with small sizes below 0.05 µm² and switching endurances of millions of cycles, which are superior to commercial memristive memories,” she emphasized. 

Breaking walls at KAUST 

The KAUST Falling Walls Lab 2023 featured 18 finalists who presented their product or venture idea to a high-profile panel of judges. Throughout the three-hour event, participants explained how their submission would "Break the Wall" between the actual science and thinking behind their product and the practicality of producing their chosen product.

Three criteria were used to evaluate and critique the presenters: The first criterion was the "Breakthrough Factor," which looked at whether the idea was original, if it could inspire other ideas, and if it was a real innovation; secondly, the submission was evaluated by its relevance and the scope of its impact; and thirdly, the judges evaluated the speaker and the presentation itself.

The participants had a mere three-minute window to present their product or venture idea onstage to the expert five-person judging panel. Yuan’s entry was deemed the overall winner from a group of top-three winners.

The material science and engineering student was overjoyed with her win and looks forward to representing KAUST on the world stage: “I am excited about competing in Berlin and delighted to have the opportunity to share our research with the world.”

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