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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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2
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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PANEL MEMBERS

Lori S. Nye, Silicon Genesis, Inc., Chair

Constance J. Chang-Hasnain, University of California, Berkeley, Vice Chair

Thomas E. Anderson, Airtron, Division of Litton Systems, Inc.

Jerome J. Cuomo, North Carolina State University

Peter J. Delfyett, University of Central Florida

Russell D. Dupuis, University of Texas at Austin

Thomas J. Gramila, Ohio State University

Katherine L. Hall, PhotonEx Corporation

David C. Larbalestier, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Tingye Li, AT&T Research (retired)

Tso-Ping Ma, Yale University

Robert C. McDonald, Intel Corporation (retired)

Bruce Melson, GE Aircraft Engines

Terry P. Orlando, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ghery S. Pettit, Intel Corporation

Robert Rottmayer, Seagate Research

Douglas K. Rytting, Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Dennis E. Speliotis, ADE Technologies, Inc.

Dale J. Van Harlingen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ronald Waxman, University of Virginia (retired)

John A. Wehrmeyer, Eastman Kodak Company (retired)

H. Lee Willis, ABB, Inc.

Donald L. Wollesen, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (retired)

Submitted for the panel by its Chair, Lori S. Nye, and its Vice Chair, Constance J. Chang-Hasnain, this assessment of the fiscal year 2002 activities of the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory is based on site visits by individual panel members, a formal meeting of the panel on February 21-22, 2002, in Boulder, Colorado, and documents provided by the laboratory.1

1  

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory, Summary of 2001 Project Status Reports (10/1/2000–9/30/2001), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 29, 2002. Programs, Activities, and Accomplishments books for each division are available online at <http://www.eeel.nist.gov/lab_office/documents.html>.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

LABORATORY-LEVEL REVIEW

Technical Merit

According to laboratory documentation, the mission of the NIST Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory (EEEL) is to strengthen the U.S. economy and improve the quality of life by providing measurement science and technology and by advancing standards, primarily for the electronics and electrical industries. This statement, which was expanded in 2000 to include the words “improve the quality of life” and to explicitly mention “measurement science and technology” and “standards,” is an appropriate mission for EEEL. It is supported by a strategic plan,2 which was revised during the past year.

For the previous assessment (fiscal year [FY] 2001), EEEL had produced a strategic plan containing a statement of vision and mission and a concise list of values. During the past year, EEEL expanded this plan to explicitly delineate the laboratory’s role and the factors that enable it to meet its mission. These factors include EEEL’s focus on making unique contributions; on having an impact on productivity and competitiveness; and on serving substantial industries, through which NIST technologies can have a significant economic effect. The strategic plan also explicitly acknowledges the core NIST competency in measurements and emphasizes support for measurement accuracy, accessibility, and applicability as part of EEEL’s role. The plan also states that, independent of organizational structure, the laboratory’s work is grouped in four major programs: Foundation for All Electrical Measurements, Electronics Industry, Electrical Industries, and Criminal Justice and Public Safety. Each program has a broad goal and a series of specific technical objectives, which are supported by the division programs and individual projects.

EEEL’s revised strategic plan is consistent with its mission and is an appropriate plan for the laboratory level. The next steps will be making and strengthening the connections between the EEEL plan and the NIST-level strategic plan and between the EEEL plan and the EEEL division plans and projects. While the laboratory is responsible for determining overall directions and priorities (consistent with NIST-level goals), the divisions will be responsible for the tactical plans needed to meet these objectives. Strong, long-range divisional plans based on technology trends and a vision of the future goals and capabilities of EEEL will be very useful for supporting and guiding budgetary planning and decision making. This guidance will help the laboratory assemble the personnel, facilities, and equipment necessary to meet the future needs of customers.

The divisions are all working on strategic plans and have made varying degrees of progress. A particular highlight is the work done so far in the Electricity Division, which reorganized in order to focus more effectively on key research areas. By next year’s assessment, the panel hopes that strong strategic and tactical plans will have been developed in all of the divisions, and it expects to see clear connections and coordination between the laboratory plan and these divisional plans. The panel also hopes to be able to see the impact of these laboratory and divisional plans at the project level. Ultimately, each project should be able to identify its linkage to the overall EEEL strategic plan, which in turn links to the overall NIST strategic plan.

One factor that may contribute to a strengthened connection between projects and the laboratory plan is EEEL’s recent development of a series of evaluation criteria that laboratory management plans

2  

U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory Strategic Plan 2002, NISTIR 6844, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., February 2002.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

to use for project selection, project assessment, and resource allocation. As of February 2002, a set of draft criteria (in the three categories: fit to mission, impact, and probability of success) had been defined. The laboratory plans to begin applying these criteria to selected projects with the primary goal of testing the criteria and a secondary goal of evaluating the projects. The panel applauds the laboratory’s efforts to develop a more objective and quantitative approach to choosing projects. The panel also supports the laboratory’s plan to evolve the criteria after testing their effectiveness on actual projects.

The development of sound general project evaluation criteria is one important element of effective project management. Another element is that of defining key milestones with quantitative benchmarks for individual projects, as discussed in last year’s report.3 The panel saw efforts being made in this direction by some divisions, but more work still needs to be done. Determining benchmarks is easier for projects directed at meeting needs that have been explicitly (and quantitatively) laid out in industry road maps, but the value of defining clear, measurable project goals and a path to achieve them is also beneficial for projects that are not linked to predefined road maps. In addition to providing a measurement of project progress for internal evaluation, sound quantitative milestones can also be a useful outreach tool. Through the definition and dissemination of benchmarks that demonstrate progress toward and achievement of results of interest to a project’s customers, the value and relevance of NIST’s work can be clearly and quickly explained.

The Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory is organized in six divisions and two offices: Electricity Division, Semiconductor Electronics Division (SED), Electromagnetic Technology Division, Radio-Frequency Technology Division, Optoelectronics Division, Magnetic Technology Division, Office of Microelectronics Programs (OMP), and Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) (see Figure 2.1). These units are reviewed in turn under “Divisional Reviews” below in this chapter; the OMP is included in the section on the SED.

The technical quality of the work under way in EEEL continues to be high. The panel was impressed by many of the projects it saw during the assessment. In the Electricity Division, work to exploit reductions in the size and complexity of Josephson junction arrays continues, with the goal of enabling this superior technology to be used in a portable device for the calibration of voltage standards. In the SED, work on scanning probe microscopy has helped staff identify a possible path for keeping up with the requirements of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) in the area of two- and three-dimensional dopant profiling. In the Radio-Frequency Technology Division, the work on noise standards and measurements has resulted in the development of noise parameters for multiport amplifiers, particularly differential amplifiers, which will be critical for the increased use of differential amplifiers in cellular phones and other applications.

In the Electromagnetic Technology Division, staff have demonstrated the ability to count single photons with transition-edge bolometers. In the Optoelectronics Division, the continued development of new, robust, high-reliability wavelength standards will promote economically viable installation of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) communication. In the Magnetic Technology Division, the development of techniques for the in situ measurements of ferromagnetic films using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) magnetometers has the potential to provide new and more accurate control of film processing for the data storage industry. In the OLES, NIST staff are working closely with

3  

National Research Council, An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2001, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2001.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

FIGURE 2.1 Organizational structure of the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory. Listed under each division are the division’s groups.

the Interagency Board for Equipment Standardization and the Interoperability Working Group on standards needed by first responders in the areas of communication, detection, protection, and decontamination.

The later sections of this chapter discuss in more detail the work under way in each division. Any suggestions from the panel on maximizing the effectiveness of the individual projects are included in the respective sections.

The importance of cross-divisional and cross-laboratory collaboration continues to be appropriately recognized in EEEL. The OLES effectively utilizes relationships with other units throughout and outside of NIST to carry out a very diverse research program. In addition, SED is taking the lead on a NIST-wide competence project in the area of single-molecule measurement and manipulation. While the SED can provide key expertise in the MEMS area, the project requires a wide array of capabilities and the coordination of participants from two divisions in EEEL (Semiconductor Electronics and Magnetic Technology), two divisions in the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, and two divisions in the Physics Laboratory. This is an impressive example of leveraging the variety of skills available at NIST to achieve the goals of a single competency project. In the Optoelectronics Division, the panel was impressed with the leveraging of division expertise and resources through cross-divisional activities, especially in the areas of electro-optic-sampling, supercontinuum and nonlinear properties research, and quantum dot (QD) and single-photon turnstiles. In the Electromagnetic Technology Division, a programmable direct current (DC) Josephson voltage standard was transferred to the Electricity Division to be calibrated against existing standards and used in the Electronic Kilogram Project.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

Program Relevance and Effectiveness

EEEL serves a wide array of customers, primarily in the electronics and electrical industries, such as electrical utilities, microelectronics companies, telecommunications and wireless industries, and optoelectronics manufacturers. Examples of the types of projects under way include work on alternating current-direct current (AC-DC) difference standards and measurement techniques to support the makers of electronic test equipment for a wide variety of industries, testing and reliability characterization of dielectric structures for the semiconductor industry, and development and dissemination of standards for the magnetic data storage industry.

The laboratory also supports other communities, including other government agencies, law enforcement, and other NIST laboratories. Examples include the work on metrology for radar cross-section systems for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD); the active role OLES is playing in homeland security and counterterrorism programs for federal, state, and local agencies; and the transfer of the x-ray microcalorimeter technology to the NIST Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory for use in high-energy-resolution spectroscopy. More detailed discussion of the divisions’ and offices’ relationships with their customers is presented later in the chapter.

In the past, the panel has emphasized the importance of maintaining a close relationship with the customers and potential customers of NIST results over the course of a project. The goal of these interactions is to ensure that the project objectives meet customer needs, to provide an opportunity during the project to make any necessary changes in direction, and to ensure that an audience for the final results exists and is ready to utilize NIST’s work. The panel is pleased to see more emphasis within EEEL on interacting directly with customers and on “closing the loop” (i.e., not just taking input from customers during project selection and startup, but also going back to them for comments and suggestions about ongoing or completed projects). The panel commends the laboratory for its progress in this area. However, the panel still does not see that formal checkpoints are being built into projects. These checkpoints would be specific times in the project plans at which input from customers on the project’s goals, objectives, and progress would be sought. These interactions would provide an opportunity to validate the appropriateness of continuing programs and would allow for midcourse corrections that take into account shifts in customer priorities or focus.

Many different measures reveal how successful EEEL has been at disseminating its results and reaching out to the many communities that benefit from the laboratory’s work. In 2001, the outputs of EEEL included the following: 268 published papers, 7 conferences or workshops hosted, 262 conference talks, 2,720 calibrations performed, 365 Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) sold, and 232 instances of participation in standards committees and professional organizations (holding 66 posts). The last three measures (calibrations, SRMs, and committee participation) reflect the laboratory’s commitment to “measurement science and technology” and “advancing standards,” as specified in EEEL’s mission, as do the wide array of measurement technology development activities throughout the laboratory.

An output measure that was not provided to the panel this year is number of patents. Patents also were not listed in the draft project evaluation criteria mentioned above (although in the deliverables section of these criteria, “technology development” is listed as a possible but rare project outcome). The panel is not taking a position on whether patents should or should not be an EEEL goal or even whether they should or should not be a measured output. However, the panel does suggest that the NIST policy in this area be clarified, as conversations with the laboratory staff revealed a range of understanding of the criteria for deciding when to apply for a patent and the process and support available for doing so. If a clear policy does exist at the NIST level, this confusion would appear to be a communications issue.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

TABLE 2.1 Sources of Funding for the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory (in millions of dollars), FY 1999 to FY 2002

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year 1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2000 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2001 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2002 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

33.2

32.5

34.8

36.6

Competence

1.9

2.1

2.0

2.2

ATP

1.9

1.4

2.1

2.1

Measurement Services (SRM production)

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

OA/NFG/CRADA

10.9

13.8

19.7

23.9

Other Reimbursable

2.7

2.8

3.2

2.7

Total

50.7

52.7

62.0

67.9

Full-time permanent staff (total)a

270

259

244

246

NOTE: Funding for the NIST Measurement and Standards Laboratories comes from a variety of sources. The laboratories receive appropriations from Congress, known as Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS) funding. Competence funding also comes from NIST’s congressional appropriations but is allocated by the NIST director’s office in multiyear grants for projects that advance NIST’s capabilities in new and emerging areas of measurement science. Advanced Technology Program (ATP) funding reflects support from NIST’s ATP for work done at the NIST laboratories in collaboration with or in support of ATP projects. Funding to support production of Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) is tied to the use of such products and is classified as “Measurement Services.” NIST laboratories also receive funding through grants or contracts from other [government] agencies (OA), from nonfederal government (NFG) agencies, and from industry in the form of cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs). All other laboratory funding, including that for Calibration Services, is grouped under “Other Reimbursable.”

a The number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

Laboratory Resources

Funding sources for the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory are shown in Table 2.1. As of January 2002, staffing for EEEL included 246 full-time permanent positions, of which 209 were for technical professionals. There were also 33 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.

EEEL has received relatively flat Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS) funding over the past several years. The total budget has continued to rise, however, owing to increases in the level of external funding from other agencies (OA) sought by and awarded to the laboratory. Roughly two-thirds of the rise in OA funding predicted between FY 2001 and FY 2002 is within the Office of Law Enforcement Standards, where all funding is external, but other divisions (Radio-Frequency Technology, Electromagnetic Technology, and Magnetic Technology) also expect to see real growth in external support. This outside money can be very useful not only for supporting key programs but also for building close ties with customers in other government agencies, such as the U.S. Air Force. It is important, however, to take care that the work EEEL has done on strategic planning and project evaluation not be undermined by externally funded projects focused outside EEEL’s carefully defined

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

mission and scope. The EEEL project evaluation criteria may be a useful tool for ensuring that internal and external projects are all contributing to the laboratory’s overall goals.

Another small but significant source of funding for EEEL is the revenue from SRM sales (“Measurement Services” in Table 2.1) and calibration services (included in “Other Reimbursable”). The panel recognizes that NIST is constrained by government regulations determining the fees that may be charged for these services. However, the panel notes that the fees currently being charged do not reflect the true cost of these services. If regulatory constraints preclude the adjustment of fees to more realistic levels, then the panel suggests that EEEL consider alternative ways to balance the costs and income associated with these activities. For example, certain services could be discontinued and/or transferred to commercial laboratories, or some processes could be automated to reduce ongoing costs. Similar approaches might be taken in the area of SRM production. The laboratory is clearly aware of the difficult decisions that must be made in order to balance the need to serve NIST’s customers and the need to develop and provide the metrology and standards of tomorrow. In the Electricity Division’s reorganization in 2001, a major focus was on improving support for the division’s measurement services; one element of the division’s plan is the termination of three measurement services at NIST and the transfer of those services’ customers to other national laboratories in the United States and Canada. The panel supports the division’s and laboratory’s efforts to move forward in this area.

A consequence of the flat budgets and congressionally mandated salary increases over the past several years is a significant reduction in the total number of staff in EEEL since 1999 (down from 270 to 246). This year, several divisions reorganized their projects and/or groups. The panel notes that for all of these changes, a key factor was redistributing staff and resources to ensure that important projects and activities were supported by the technical expertise and staff time needed to meet project goals in a timely manner. These reorganizations are discussed further in the sections on the individual divisions below.

The panel applauds EEEL for recognizing the need to reevaluate the allocation of personnel resources in the current budgetary climate. However, the panel does wish to emphasize the importance of proactive planning for foreseeable changes in personnel. In some divisions, many key researchers are approaching retirement; significant areas of expertise could be lost. The panel would prefer to see more visible demonstrations that EEEL is preparing for the transitions that this change in personnel will require. Planning could address whether the laboratory should continue to work in the areas in which expertise will be lost, and, on the basis of that decision, how expertise will be transferred to existing or new staff members or how work in the affected areas will be smoothly concluded. Specific areas in which succession planning appears to be an immediate need include the Radio-Frequency Technology Division and the superconductor work in the Magnetic Technology Division.

The facilities available to EEEL continue to be an issue for the panel. The Boulder facilities in particular are substandard for the important type and quality of work being done in EEEL. Some progress has been made in a few individual cases, as in the renovation of the nanoprobe imaging laboratory in the Magnetic Technology Division and the remodeling of several large laboratories in the Electromagnetic Technology Division. However, the number of problems continues to outweigh any progress. The lack of effective buildingwide climate control limits the effectiveness of improvements in individual laboratories. For the Radio-Frequency Technology Division, this problem in Building 24 has improved marginally, but the current lack of precise environmental controls in the facility will significantly compromise NIST’s ability to perform near-field antenna pattern measurements at the higher frequencies. In addition to physical problems with the facilities, the panel observed that the distribution of staff in the available space is not always optimal; the Magnetic Technology Division, with only 13 permanent staff, is spread out over five separate buildings.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

As noted in last year’s report, one significant improvement in Boulder in the past few years was the major renovation and expansion of the clean-room facility. The Boulder divisions, particularly the Electromagnetic Technology Division, are benefiting from access to this state-of-the-art microfabrication facility. Gaithersburg does not have this capability on-site. While several ad hoc solutions (such as having customized chips made at Sandia National Laboratories) have been effective in the short term, these approaches have depended heavily on the ability of individual researchers to form collaborative relationships with scientists who have access to appropriate equipment. The panel believes that EEEL should examine its need for the microassemblies and circuits that are increasingly critical in electrical metrology experiments and standards research, consider all the options for producing these devices, and develop a laboratory- or divisionwide strategy for efficiently satisfying the needs in both the short and long terms.

In Gaithersburg, a significant factor in future facilities planning is the Advanced Measurement Laboratory (AML), scheduled to be ready for occupation in 2004. The panel is certainly pleased that this facility is finally being constructed. The next and immediate challenge is planning for the effective utilization of the building. The panel did not see a clear, unified plan at the NIST or EEEL level for AML use. Such a plan should be completed as soon as possible and should address the questions of how decisions will be made about which projects go into the AML and what NIST’s overall needs are regarding the equipment and capabilities in this building. These decisions should take into account the operating costs associated with any facilities in the AML, as well as built-in capital, overhead, and maintenance requirements. Factors worth considering would include how quickly various equipment becomes outdated and whether certain capabilities can be accessed more efficiently via collaborative relationships with other institutions. To be most effective and credible, any plans for the AML should be consistent with and closely coordinated with NIST and EEEL strategic plans.

Laboratory Responsiveness

Overall, the panel has found EEEL to be very responsive to suggestions, concerns, and questions raised in previous assessment reports. The progress on strategic planning at the laboratory level is one example, although the panel will watch for continued evolution in this area, particularly in the divisions. Examples of the divisions’ commendable responsiveness to the FY 2001 report include the redirection of the compound semiconductor program in the Semiconductor Electronics Division, the stabilization of the management chain (and the resulting improvement in morale and consistency of direction) in the Electricity Division, the revision of the mission statement in the Magnetic Technology Division, the progress made on purity measurements for semiconductor gases in the Optoelectronics Division, and the delivery of standards systems to users at NIST Gaithersburg in the Electromagnetic Technology Division.

The panel is pleased with responsiveness to the assessment report observed over the past year, but has some concern about the speed and completeness of some of the responses. In general, the laboratory and divisions do acknowledge the validity of the panel’s input and do discuss the issues related to any areas in which action has not occurred. In some cases, the issue may be that certain problems (such as the panel’s concerns about the overall quality of the Boulder facilities) cannot be remedied at the divisional or laboratory level. However, it did not always appear that the divisions were making an effort to find alternative approaches or were effectively making their cases to higher levels of NIST management. The panel was somewhat concerned about whether this might be a problem, for example, in the case of the engineering and architectural study for a Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic-Field Metrology Laboratory (REML) facility in the Radio-Frequency Technology Division.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

MAJOR OBSERVATIONS

The panel presents the following major observations:

  • The work under way in the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory continues to be of the highest technical quality. The impact of the programs on industry and other NIST customers is significant.

  • The panel is pleased with the progress that has been made on strategic planning in the laboratory over the past year. The next step will be strengthening of the links between the laboratory-level plan and the NIST-level plan, as well as between the plans at the laboratory and the division levels. Eventually, linkages to the strategic plan should be seen at the level of individual projects.

  • The laboratory has clearly placed increased emphasis on interactions with NIST customers; the panel applauds this outreach effort and has seen the positive impact that these relationships have on project selection and dissemination. This work could be supplemented by adding more explicit checkpoints to project plans, thereby providing opportunities for customers to validate the appropriateness of continuing programs during the programs’ execution.

  • As can be seen by the difficulty of obtaining funding for new or renovated buildings in Boulder, the construction of the Advanced Measurement Laboratory at NIST Gaithersburg is a very special opportunity for NIST and EEEL. To make full and effective use of this facility, a comprehensive and unified plan for utilization of the AML is needed. This plan should take into account the types of projects that should be performed in the AML, the capabilities and equipment that NIST as a whole will need to develop or purchase for the AML, and the continuing costs of supporting and maintaining the equipment and facility.

DIVISIONAL REVIEWS

Electricity Division

Technical Merit

The mission of the Electricity Division is to provide the world’s most technically advanced and fundamentally sound basis for all electrical measurements and associated standards in the United States. The Electricity Division’s programs involve three principle elements: (1) realizing the international system (SI) of electrical units; (2) developing improved measurement methods and calibration services; and (3) supporting the measurements and standard infrastructure needed by U.S. industry to develop new products, ensure quality, and compete economically in the world’s markets. The division is organized in three groups: Instrumentation and Systems, Fundamental Electrical Measurements, and Electronic Information Technologies.

The impact of documentary standards has become much more visible in a world of expanding international trade. NIST participation in these activities is of vital importance to U.S. interests. The mission statement does not adequately reflect the division’s documentary standards effort.

The level of both technical skill and design creativity for the Electronic Kilogram project is exceptionally high. The watt-balance is an exceedingly difficult apparatus to make and refine. The capabilities of the people working on this effort rise to the need. The project combines the use of a number of existing electrical standards (the volt and the ohm) in order to generate a known force through means of a complex, yet fundamentally deterministic, magnetic system. This is the sort of measurement system

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

of which NIST can be proud. This project is clearly a leader among various efforts in the world to replace the artifactual kilogram.

Historically NIST has been one of the world’s leaders in the determination of the volt, and it remains so today. The leading voltage laboratories of the world today derive their value of the volt through the use of the Josephson junction devices that NIST was instrumental in developing. The staff of the Voltage Metrology project have not been resting on these laurels. Realizing the value of the Josephson-array device, they have continued to refine it and to reduce its size and complexity so that it can be portable. The need for this effort became apparent during recent interlaboratory comparison (ILC) programs for the comparison of the volt. These programs demonstrated that the predominant contributor to the uncertainty was the instability and noise of the zener diode transfer devices. It is expected that using a portable Josephson array in place of the zener diode transfer standards would improve the uncertainty of these ILCs by a factor of 10. In addition to the use of a portable Josephson-array device for ILC work, the Voltage Metrology project is moving toward the use of a programmable array for the voltage calibration services provided to its customers. EEEL enjoys a steady demand for calibration of saturated cell voltage standards from its customers. At one time it was hoped that the evolution of the zener diode reference standards might improve the state of the art and make high-level voltage calibrations much easier. However, over the years the zener-based devices have shown certain unpredictable noise characteristics, which diminish their value as a highly stable voltage standard. The programmable Josephson array is expected to provide more accurate and efficient service.

The researchers involved in the Single Electron Tunneling project have demonstrated a considerable level of technical skill and insight into what is probably the most important challenge to the success of this general approach. The project seeks to develop a stable, manufacturable capacitance standard based on single-electron transistors (SETs) and to use this standard to “close the metrology triangle” of current, voltage, and resistance. Researchers recognized that the long-term stability of the intrinsic properties of the SETs themselves is a serious limitation on further development of this general approach to current standards. A significant effort has been undertaken to develop methods to avoid the fundamental materials problems that are at the heart of this instability. An important element of the success achieved to date lies in the ability of the principal investigator to forge collaborations with other efforts inside and outside NIST. Effective collaboration with NIST Boulder, work with a Japanese group, and work with investigators at the University of Maryland have all proven effective. The limited level of staffing for this project makes these collaborations all the more critical.

Maintaining the legal units such as the ohm is at the heart of the NIST charter. Realizing and disseminating the value of the ohm is an essential component in the foundation of international trade. NIST continues to be a world leader in the realization of the ohm through state-of-the-art technology such as the quantum Hall (QH) resistance device. The QH devices are currently manufactured by NIST. However, these devices degrade over time, and NIST has had to work diligently to ensure an adequate supply. The level of resistance produced by the QH devices is very small and difficult to use. In addition, the system to realize the ohm through the device is expensive and difficult to use. The Metrology of the Ohm project team has taken on the task of trying to develop a QH device that will be less expensive and easier to use. If successful, this project may make it possible to do QH resistance work in the field. Important work on high-resistance measurement capability is moving forward and will be of great value to the materials industries. In recent years, EEEL has made major improvements of measurements in the range 10 megohms to 100 teraohms. An active-arm bridge, which will cover this resistance range, is under development. A 1-teraohm standard is complete. New Hamon Transfer Standards are being developed to more accurately scale up to this range. In addition, the ability to

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

measure resistance to 1 megohm and above is being improved through the development of a cryogenic current comparator.

The AC-DC Difference Standards and Measurement Techniques project is excellent from every perspective. Despite the simplicity of the concept, it is not simple to achieve exact AC-DC comparison and to maintain small measurement margins over a wide range of frequency and current levels; the process is subject to a host of possible sources of error and ambiguity. The division handles these difficulties in stride and makes the work look straightforward. This project has well-identified goals, a clear long-term concept of its direction and priorities, and a clear implementation plan to meet those priorities. Its members have excellent dialogue and both collegial and working relationships with similar projects at other laboratories and in other countries. The program’s calibration services are highly utilized, and to all appearances they are handled in a manner completely satisfactory to its customers. It produces quality, current publications and has a high degree of internal involvement with other NIST projects.

The Realization of the SI Farad and Ohm project maintains and disseminates the farad and ohm. It is performing work to tie the U.S. legal farad to the SI. It provides the U.S. industrial base with consistent, reproducible, reliable, and traceable electrical measurement calibration in these areas.

The Realization of the SI Farad and Ohm project merits recognition for maintenance of the farad and ohm standards. This may not be as innovative or exciting as other work in the division, but it is important and fundamental to NIST’s role. The project has two particularly innovative areas of technical focus—that of the calculable capacitor and research on using QH resistance for AC measurements. Both studies have well-developed research plans and show originality in concepts, implementation, and interpretation. The staff is of the highest caliber and is very committed to this work. However, the projected pace of these plans may be somewhat ambitious, given current staffing. Current trends in miniaturization of electronic equipment could create a need for ever-finer measurement of the farad and ohm, challenging this project to keep pace.

The Infrastructure for Integrated Electronic Design and Manufacturing (IIEDM) project seeks to develop a standardized means to represent electrical and mechanical manufacturing data. The manufacturing infrastructure depends on such standard representations and libraries of component parts. At present, many such libraries and data representations exist, but with no single standard. The NIST project is attempting to address many aspects of this problem, to which NIST researchers have the knowledge base to contribute solutions. In the past year, the team demonstrated one example of the use of an infrastructure to create an electronic part.

The Metrology for Electric Power Systems Program is excellent from every perspective. It has well-identified goals, clear direction and priorities, and a sound plan to meet its targets. Project professionals, technicians, and their management have developed impressive ties to and working relationships with industry, professional associations, and standards bodies associated with the use of this project’s standards and services. The project members have published a number of noteworthy papers making substantial contributions to electric power metrology, and their work is well respected by the industry. Development programs such as the automated test system for power and energy, the prototype transformer efficiency measuring system, and the harmonics work all show careful planning, attention to detail in implementation, and all the expected results of good management. The project’s members have excellent relationships with similar projects at other laboratories and in other countries.

The Waveform Acquisition Devices and Standards project exists to expand and improve present NIST time domain waveform measurements services. Operating at frequencies from DC to 50 GHz, these services support high-performance samplers and digitizers, and fast pulse and impulse sources. The work of this project clearly lies at the limit of what is achievable with current instrumentation. The

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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personnel in the project have been able to develop methods that have permitted calibration of a commercially available instrument to such accuracy that the instrument can then be used as a tool for the calibration of other instruments. The expertise and technical capability demonstrated in this work are exemplary.

The Flat Panel Display Metrology project responds to the need to characterize displays quantitatively. This emphasis was selected because of the growing use of this type of display in the computer and automobile industries and in other applications. Work originally focused on the development of a robust device that could be used for ILCs and could thereby help industry narrow the disparity of measurement results. A new, more compact, robust, and transportable device is being developed for this purpose. As part of this effort, new devices were developed such as the stray light elimination tube, a baffled cylinder to reduce stray light entering the viewing detector. Some of the most important products from this project are documentary standards. Among many others, a standard entitled “Flat Panel Display Measurements Standard, Version 2.0” was published in 2001 as a Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) document, illustrating the close working relationship EEEL has established with this industry. The project is now starting to tackle problems such as speckle in rear projection systems and near-eye display measurements. This work is expected to result in additional VESA standards for measurement.

Program Relevance and Effectiveness

The Electronic Kilogram project exemplifies the division’s ability to meet traditional objectives using modern approaches. The unit of mass is currently based on a physical artifact whose copies differ by non-negligible amounts. Numerous national measurement institutes (NMIs) are making efforts to replace these artifacts with standards based on a fundamental property of nature. The program at NIST is among the forefront of such efforts and is necessary in order that the United States retain a leadership role in the field of standards.

The AC-DC Difference Standards and Measurement Techniques project provides U.S. industry with a link between DC and AC electrical standards and maintains and improves national standards of measuring DC and AC differences, which are used to provide calibrations for scientific and industrial applications. The importance of this project is indicated by the substantial amount of calibration work requested and by requests for extensions of calibration capabilities to higher frequencies and electrical current levels. Nearly every type of industry using electric power or electronics in any form has some need for accurate measurement based on thermal converters and AC shunts. These needs vary widely in terms of both the frequencies and the amounts of current involved—thus the need for standards and calibration services covering a wide range of frequency and current. Although the assessment panel has not made any specific study of present and future needs in this area, the panel’s familiarity with industry trends in general suggests that the present demand for wider bandwidth and higher current in AC-DC measurements will continue. The need for high frequencies (>105 Hz) and high current (>50 A) in combination will probably continue as a host of new monitoring, communications, and high-frequency power technologies continue to develop.

The farad and ohm are basic electrical units, and maintaining dependable, consistent, and traceable standards for them must continue to be a core priority for the Electricity Division. In addition, relating the U.S. legal farad and ohm to international standards is important for international trade, and extending their measurement to smaller levels of uncertainty is a key to technological progress in the continued miniaturization of electrical equipment.

The electric power industry depends on the Metrology for Electric Power Systems Program for

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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calibration services in high-voltage, high-current power and energy. Electric power is so fundamental to the U.S. economy and the power industry is so dependent on accurate measurement of power flow and voltages in its systems that there is no question about the necessity of this program. The Electricity Division is meeting industry needs and maintaining its standing in international standards. Very relevant work is being carried out in many areas. Two areas of major importance are the measurement of efficiency in power distribution transformers and methods to sample and characterize harmonic power. Both are important to the electric power industry, but NIST may be underestimating the importance and relevance of the latter activities to the consumer appliance and electronics industry.

The stated objective of the Infrastructure for Integrated Electronic Design and Manufacturing project is to contribute actively to the technical development of neutral product data exchange specifications and component information infrastructure for the electronics industry. The project has two primary focus areas: Electronic Commerce of Component Information (ECCI) and Internet Commerce for Manufacturing (ICM). The NIST ECCI and ICM focus areas within the IIEDM project are recognized by a broad-based electronic industry as extremely important. Producers of electronic components, users of electronic components to produce larger subassemblies and consumer products, and developers and producers of software to aid electronic component producers in the development of their products all need to be able to communicate the critical component parameters that are contained in component information databases. Standards for describing component information and standard formats to store such information will have a significant positive impact on reducing the cost of doing business. The IIEDM addresses such information standards. Numerous standards groups meet frequently to reach agreement in these areas, which illustrates the work’s importance. Standards group meetings sponsored by the Electronics Industry Alliance (EIA) and the IEEE as well as many industry ad hoc standards groups are well attended by industry representatives. The NIST scientists attend these meetings as often as possible, but their personnel resources are too limited for them to accomplish what is needed at such meetings. However, their participation is welcomed and encouraged by industry because of the neutrality and technical skills they bring to the standardization efforts. The IIEDM project is recognized by industry groups as having an important impact, but it is below a critical mass to effectively meet industry needs.

The Information System to Support Calibrations project seeks to develop and refine a workflow application to enable the automatic tracking of technical and administrative calibration information. The tracking system should reduce the percentage of time NIST scientists spend on producing the necessary calibration forms and associated reports. This project resulted from an ad hoc effort of a few dedicated and enthusiastic researchers in the Electricity Division who saw the need for an information system to meet the needs of EEEL for tracking its many calibration programs. The work is now in use for calibrations throughout all of NIST. The Information System to Support Calibrations project is another example of the dedication and enthusiasm shown by these researchers in meeting their customers’ needs. Ad hoc work has now been started on a bibliographic database, which is needed because papers being written throughout NIST are listed in various databases within NIST, and searches are done with difficulty because of the diverse sources of information. The bibliographic database is intended as a consistent database within EEEL for paper searches. The work on it is approximately 50 percent complete.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Electricity Division are shown in Table 2.2. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 52 full-time permanent positions, of which 48 were for technical professionals.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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TABLE 2.2 Sources of Funding for the Electricity Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1999 to FY 2002

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year 1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2000 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2001 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2002 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

7.8

7.6

7.8

7.8

Competence

0.9

0.5

0.4

0.3

ATP

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.0

OA/NFG/CRADA

1.3

1.7

1.7

1.8

Other Reimbursable

1.2

1.1

1.1

1.1

Total

11.5

11.1

11.3

11.0

Full-time permanent

65

63

57

52 staff (total)a

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 2.1.

aThe number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

There were also 9 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.

The division reorganization plan—reducing the number of managers and groups from four to three, assigning senior professionals across two or more projects in order to assure some redundant knowledge, and flexible staffing assignments to projects—is a very innovative and skillfully executed plan to deal well with the decreasing technical resource base within the division. It appears to have met all its goals and to have enabled the Electricity Division to meet its essential mission goals and short-term targets in a satisfactory manner. Morale among professionals, technicians, and managers has improved compared with that of a year ago. The staff’s commitment to their work remains at an extraordinarily high level, but many more staff members now seem to have faith in their abilities and in their division’s future and to enjoy being at work.

However, the panel remains concerned about three long-term trends: (1) the gradual reduction in the number of professional staff, particularly if counted in years of experience; (2) flat budgets that do not even track inflation; and (3) swelling overhead costs. These trends cause concern about the division’s long-term prospects to remain world-class in electricity metrology and to satisfy U.S. industry needs for traceable electrical standards and for calibration services based on them.

Staffing for basic measurements and services such as the volt, ohm, and AC-DC difference standards is at a marginal level. The panel was surprised that the division has been able to maintain its level of service with the current staffing level.

The IIEDM project is below critical mass. Morale is being affected. Though the project team is dedicated and highly enthusiastic, team members feel that they are lacking the resources to do their jobs well. NIST does not appear to have a plan to remedy the problems of this industrially important project.

Staffing is the central limitation on the progress of the Single Electron Tunneling project. Some effort has been made to improve staffing levels; however, the investigator added to the program has taken on other duties because of unanticipated departures in the division, and the project is once again at minimum staffing level. The panel recognizes that staffing levels throughout the division are stretched

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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dangerously thin, making additional staffing for this project difficult. Also, limitations in clean-room processing capabilities at NIST are a concern with this project.

The Voltage Metrology project has had a steady workload supported by a small staff of fixed size. The panel has been concerned with contingency staffing for this important project. The staff is now working hard to address this concern through cross-training. No extra capacity exists in this group if any new projects need to be addressed. To keep the current workload under control, opportunities have been sought to delegate work to other organizations where appropriate and possible. The division should be commended as it continues to look for creative ways to manage its workload. For some time the Voltage Metrology project has been plagued by the lack of reliable and clean electric power, which is essential for the services it provides. A single, reliable, backup power generator has been installed to solve this problem.

The Metrology for Electric Power Systems Program has little margin to absorb any unexpected reduction in staffing, full- or part-time, without some impact on its performance. Management may wish to consider maintaining flexibility in redundant expert knowledge and skills that would allow it to quickly expand this group if the need arises. Currently, a high level of attention is being paid by the public and Congress to the electric power industry. This is certain to continue, with the growing need for accurate tracking and accounting of power, energy, and power quality on a transactional basis in the deregulated utility industry. The demand for this group’s services could grow substantially over the next few years.

The researchers in the Waveform Acquisition Devices and Standards project struggle to acquire needed equipment that can be rather expensive. While current optical communications techniques require 50-GHz electrical measurements, devices are being developed in industry that are expected to reach frequencies approaching 200 GHz—well beyond current NIST’s capabilities—and this need will have to be addressed at some point. Collaborations with other divisions or laboratories that have optical expertise should be encouraged and supported.

All employees should have the opportunity to enhance or broaden their skill base. Such opportunities do exist at NIST, but division employees do not seem to utilize them. As new technical needs unfold, employees should be given the opportunity to retrain with the new skills required. This should have a positive effect on the morale of employees. Division managers need to encourage the use of training programs.

Semiconductor Electronics Division

Technical Merit

The mission of the Semiconductor Electronics Division is to provide leadership in developing the semiconductor measurement infrastructure essential to improving U.S. economic competitiveness by providing necessary measurements, physical standards, and supporting data and technology; associated generic technology; and fundamental research results to industry, government, and academia. The primary focus is on mainstream silicon CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) technology. The division’s programs also respond to industry measurement needs related to microelectromechanical systems, power electronics, and compound semiconductors. The division was reorganized into four groups last year: Materials Technology, Advanced Microelectronics Technology, Device Technology, and Integrated Circuit Technology.

Division staff members have an excellent understanding of the problems facing the semiconductor industry and of those to which their unique skills can be most effectively applied. Industry views the

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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division’s contributions as unique and essential to efficiently providing measurement techniques and standards. NIST is seen as an unbiased source of measurement methods and standards, which is extremely beneficial to the industry. No other institution can provide this unique combination of skills and objectivity.

The panel continues to be impressed with the technical quality of the programs that are under way within the Semiconductor Electronics Division. The quality of the staff is the key driver of the quality of the research, and the panel notes that the accomplishments of division personnel have been recognized by governmental and other organizations on many occasions. For example, in 2001, division staff members were honored with the IEEE Components Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society Outstanding Sustained Technical Contributions Award and the IEEE Total Excellence in Electronics Manufacturing (TEEM) Award, and two staff members were elected fellows of IEEE. The panel discusses highlights of some division programs below.

Programs in the division, although industrially driven, are engaged in the scientific research necessary to build competencies and fundamental understanding of relevant systems. Two new basic research programs have been funded in the last year and a half by the NIST Director’s Competence Building Program. One of these projects, the Molecular Electronics project, initiated in 2001, has now completed the first capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements on real molecular electronic structures. This effort is in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard, which provided the test structures. A second project, Single Molecule Manipulation and Measurement (SM3), is targeting more accurate measurements in genomic science as its first goal.

NIST has made breakthrough progress in developing three-dimensional linewidth standards (sometimes called critical dimension, or CD, standards) called for by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. A three-dimensional standard simulates real-world measurements more accurately than current two-dimensional standards do, as actual integrated circuit (IC) structures are three-dimensional. The capability of the two-dimensional standard fell well behind industry needs a number of years ago. Technology developed by the Semiconductor Electronics Division provides linewidth measurements traceable to the atomic spacing of silicon. A 200-mm silicon wafer linewidth metrology standard was delivered to International SEMATECH in 2001. This standard permits CD measurements from 90 to 120 nm with a precision of +/−14.5 nm (3 sigma). The division expects to deliver a standard in 2002 that permits measurements in the 60- to 90-nm range with a precision of +/−7 nm (3 sigma). A commercial supplier has been qualified for volume production of the new three-dimensional standard.

The Scanning-Probe Microscope Metrology project continues to provide leadership in the application of scanning-probe microscopy to semiconductor device dopant profiling. The ITRS documents dopant profiling needs that exceed current capability. The division has developed state-of-the-art tools for these measurements. In 2001, improvements were made in two-dimensional capability, and progress was made on three-dimensional capability. The project aims to improve these measurements through better sample preparation, better use of scanning-probe techniques, and improved models for using the derived signals to generate feature profile interpretation of scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) data. The first applications of an inversion modeling approach have successfully demonstrated the potential to improve the spatial accuracy of the technique by an order of magnitude, which will approach the accuracy called for in the ITRS. This work is crucial to the support of accurate technology computer-aided design (TCAD) device simulations in industry, which are used for the design of advanced transistors.

The goals of the Advanced Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Device Reliability and Characterization project are to improve reliability and electrical characterization tools for advanced semiconductor technologies, with focus on ultrathin silicon dioxide and alternative gate dielectric films. While the

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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most tangible deliverables from this project are standard test procedures and characterization techniques, researchers also conduct basic research on the reliability of advanced gate dielectrics, including ultrathin silicon oxides, oxynitrides, and high-k dielectrics. Some notable results include new understanding of the role of holes in oxide wear-out mechanisms, discovery of heavy ion-induced soft breakdown of thin gate oxides, and the initial reliability characterization of HfO2 as an advanced CMOS gate dielectric. Use of test structures and test methods developed by NIST in response to industry need is common throughout the semiconductor industry, and NIST’s transistor gate oxide metrology has kept pace with the ITRS needs. Foreign standards organizations and manufacturers have adopted U.S. standards as well.

The Thin Film Process Metrology project focuses on the characterization of candidate advanced gate dielectric materials for CMOS technology, including oxynitrides, high-k metal oxides, and metal-silicates. The division is developing optical data, optical models, and thin-film measurement capabilities to support key ITRS needs. These data and methods directly address industry needs for new dielectric development and process control. It is the only program in the world that focuses on optical measurements and modeling for gate dielectric materials and their related process metrology issues from the infrared to vacuum ultraviolet (VUV). Notable accomplishments for FY 2001 include the development and transfer to International SEMATECH of a generalized Tauc-Lorentz optical dispersion model to determine film thickness and optical properties of high-k dielectrics, the completion of sample exchange with VLSI Standards, Inc., in order to establish traceability for Si3N4 standards, benchmarking of a suite of one-dimensional quantum mechnical software for MOS gate C-V characterization down to 1 nm oxide thickness and expanded capability for comparison with two-dimensional software, and the installation of a VUV ellipsometer to extend NIST capability to the 8.5- to 9-eV range. This work is timely, and the measurement methodologies developed for spectroscopic ellipsometry and the comparison of C-V characterization models are highly relevant to industry needs. The software package developed for extracting the thickness distributions and dielectric constants of multilayer dielectric stacks appears powerful and is already being disseminated to industry users.

The Metrology for Simulation and Computer Aided Design project focuses on developing efficient and reliable tools and methodologies that address industry needs for semiconductor computer-aided design (CAD) and system-on-a-chip methodologies. The project is intended to develop unique test and measurement techniques to aid in the development, characterization, and validation of new and emerging device technologies. Key accomplishments in 2001 include the development of a unique characterization tool that enables the measurement of critical performance parameters of silicon carbide power Schottky diodes and silicon carbide power metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETS). This tool provides a state-of-the-art capability that enables measurement of silicon carbide diode switching characteristics while operating at a current, voltage, and frequency close to the failure point of the device. This tool should aid industry researchers in understanding device failure mechanisms and lead to improvements in device design. In addition, transient thermal image metrology, a measurement tool developed in the division, is being used to understand thermal management in the packaging of silicon and silicon carbide power devices. This tool could potentially be used to image and calibrate the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that are used to characterize wire-bonding processes. Both of these tools have the potential for development into commercial systems and could be used by industry to improve package design, yields, and device performance.

The panel is pleased to see the reorganization of compound semiconductor research into several focus areas more consistent with the NIST mission. One new focus area moves into newly emerging technology based on group III nitrides as semiconductors for radio-frequency (RF), optical, and power applications. The division has assembled a unique set of tools to characterize gallium nitride devices.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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These have significant relevance in both DOD and commercial applications, and researchers need tools to understand the correlation between materials and device characteristics. It appears that researchers on this study will also play a significant role in the upcoming Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Technology Initiative. NIST will serve as an unbiased independent resource to aid in the characterization and development of nitride-based RF devices and will assist DARPA in monitoring the progress of its program.

The Microelectromechanical Systems project has made good progress in the use of MEMS devices to measure stress and elasticity in the thin-film materials widely used by the semiconductor industry. In 2001, the division demonstrated a new optical vibrometer, which measures the resonant properties of microcantilever beams used in MEMS. This technique can measure the properties of cantilever beams constructed with one material, two different materials, or the sandwiches of many materials that are found in semiconductor devices. This work has substantial technical merit in improving metrology for semiconductor industry thin films; it should be readily transferable, since it has been developed using standard silicon-based technologies.

The MEMS project also developed bond pad test structures with standard process thermocouples fabricated underneath. These structures were successfully measured during thermocompression wire-bonding techniques—an industry first. The industry makes ~8 trillion wire bonds each year. This new measurement capability will allow the manufacture of wire bonds with improved reliability and will improve production throughput. The panel looks forward to seeing this capability transferred successfully to industry. The MEMS project also made good progress on microfluidic fabrication methods and measurement systems. This capability will allow the creation of filters, valves, pumps, mixers, separators, reactors, and detection devices on one chip with micron and submicron features. A new, innovative device named the convective accelerometer was developed and patented by the division. This device should reduce the cost of accelerometers for motion sensing, resulting in improved performance and reduced cost for systems that utilize these devices, such as acceleration sensors for the deployment of airbags in automobiles.

The Human Genome project is currently challenged by the accuracy of the measurement of DNA and RNA molecules. The errors in current measurement methods have resulted in an uncertainty in the number of base pairs present ranging from 30,000 to 140,000 pairs. This leads to significant discrepancies in the genetic sequences found in current databases. The SM3 competence project has the goal of developing nanofabricated fluidic-based systems designed to control and move single molecules and to enable single-molecule measurements. Single-molecule measurement has the potential to provide new information and a level of measurement certainty that does not exist in the methods that have been used in genomics up to this time. By combining the division’s existing capabilities in MEMS with the advances in photolithography and etching that have occurred in the semiconductor industry, a new class of device called NEMS (nanoelectromechanical systems) is now possible. The smaller feature sizes of these devices permit the fabrication of fluidic filters that are capable of sorting molecules on the basis of molecular size. Further, by creating nanopore devices through which molecules can be made to move one at a time, individual nucleotide base pairs within a DNA molecule can be determined, providing a quick and accurate determination of the DNA sequence. SM3 project deliverables include the production of NEMS devices and systems, including that of well-characterized nanoscale fluidic devices and nanopores. They also include single-molecule structural determination and DNA, RNA, and protein-binding measurements.

Current methods of fabricating electronic devices are fast approaching the physical limits of their capabilities. In order to continue the miniaturization of these devices, industry is looking toward molecular electronic and nanosilicon structures that might perform the functions of conventional silicon

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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or compound semiconductor components. The goal of the Nanoelectronic Device Metrology project is to develop testbed structures to make reliable measurements of small assembled molecules and silicon-based nanoelectronic devices. This collaboration with other NIST laboratories and with a number of companies, universities, and government laboratories is utilizing state-of-the-art technologies. These collaborations will enhance the effectiveness and relevance of the proposed work and will supplement the laboratory resources for fabrication and production of test structures. The first efforts to make C-V measurements on molecular electronic devices provided by Hewlett-Packard, mentioned earlier, have been successful.

The panel was given a brief update of recent accomplishments in the Office of Microelectronics Programs. The OMP matrix-manages the National Semiconductor Metrology Program (NSMP), a NIST-wide effort designed to meet the highest-priority measurement needs of the semiconductor manufacturing industry and its supporting infrastructure as expressed by the ITRS and other authoritative industry sources. The OMP currently has a broad portfolio of projects conducted in six of the NIST Measurement and Standards Laboratories. In response to last year’s recommendation, the OMP has facilitated the formation of “birds of a feather” groups consisting of experts in common areas to address common problems. One group was formed to address particle analysis methods. This group made a major breakthrough as a result of the shared learning that occurred. Also in response to recommendations made last year, the OMP extended the use of its “Industry Scorecard” metric beyond use as a performance metric to facilitate communications between NIST and its customers. Finally, the OMP incorporated an industry road map benchmark requirement as a standard part of program-funding requests and reviews, also in response to panel recommendations.

Program Relevance and Effectiveness

The Semiconductor Electronics Division, through its in-depth knowledge of semiconductor measurement needs and an excellent strategic planning process that continues to improve each year, has engaged in key programs that have immediate and long-term benefit to the semiconductor industry. Two new long-range competence projects, SM3 and Molecular Electronics, are expected to result in the development of new laboratory capabilities and to enable NIST to be prepared for key future developments. The panel highlights some key examples of program effectiveness below.

The Linewidth Standards for Nanometer Metrology project has resulted in the delivery of a successful three-dimensional standard that meets ITRS scaling needs. The production of this standard has been successfully transferred to a commercial supplier. Similarly, two-dimensional and three-dimensional dopant profiling using scanning capacitance microscopy has resulted in the most advanced capability in this area, although it does not yet meet ITRS requirements.

Silicon dioxide is still the only gate dielectric in high-volume manufacturing, and it will remain so for the near-term and midrange future. The Advanced MOS Device Reliability and Characterization project has successfully kept pace with mainstream ITRS requirements for silicon dioxide measurements. Division standards are now being adopted internationally.

The Metrology for Simulation and Computer Aided Design project continues to provide state-of-the-art capability for the measurement of silicon carbide diode switching characteristics at critical operating conditions. This provides improved insight into device operation for future device improvement. The division has also developed a highly relevant state-of-the-art thermal imaging tool and is preparing to transfer this tool to industry.

The panel has seen a significant broadening in the objective of the MEMS project, which has been extended to include biological measurements. This change resulted in the funding of a new competence

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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project, SM3, in collaboration with the NIST Biotechnology, Analytical Chemistry, Optical Technology, Quantum Physics, and Magnetic Technology Divisions. Measurement objectives have been clearly and artfully described by computer-generated models. As a collaborative thrust, this research program will gain the benefit of the multidisciplinary perspective available within this team. With the widespread interest in the human genome, the project is timely and may have applicability in the “war on terror.” Progress in this project could enhance U.S. competitiveness in molecular biology and biotechnology by enabling faster, more accurate measurements of DNA and protein sequencing. Areas of application might include the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and ultra-high density data storage industries.

The division also continues to develop MEMS-based IC test structures that can be incorporated into common IC process technology. NIST has demonstrated the ability to use this technology to measure the elastic properties of thin films utilized in silicon IC manufacturing and bond pad temperatures during the wire-bonding process. While a significant amount of development remains to be done before these tools can be routinely applied by the semiconductor industry, the division has demonstrated how MEMS-based tools offer unique solutions to common silicon IC manufacturing problems. In addition, the division has played a significant role in teaching the industry how to use this technology to measure stress and strain through an interactive Web site (www.eeel.nist.gov/812/test-structures/index.htm).

The Semiconductor Electronics Division and the Office of Microelectronic Programs have played a key role in International SEMATECH and Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) Metrology Working Groups that set the metrology requirements in the ITRS. Division staff assume leading roles in U.S. standards committees that generate new and better methods for critical industrywide measurements for the semiconductor industry. Examples include the oxide quality-measurement methods approved by the JEDEC-Solid State Technology Association4 to verify the uniformity of offshore IC foundry products. The South Korean NMI is adopting a number of NIST-developed methods to meet that nation’s industry needs. The division’s role in organizing the International Conferences on Characterization and Metrology for ULSI [ultralarge-scale integration] Technology is a particularly valuable leadership activity. The next conference is scheduled for 2003 and is expected to result in another 700-plus-page hardbound proceedings volume published by the American Institute of Physics. The volume resulting from the conference is a practical, up-to-date summary of the state of the art in semiconductor measurement science and metrology for use by researchers and in industrial applications.

In order to further the development of high-power devices, the semiconductor industry requires better test and measurement tools, device-modeling capability, and improvements in package design. The Metrology for Simulation and Computer Aided Design project has uniquely addressed industry needs by developing tools and methodologies that are the best in the world and has offered these tools as an unbiased and independent resource. In doing so, NIST has maintained a noncompetitive relationship with industry, universities, and the DOD community.

The division participated in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) “round robin” correlation tests on MEMS devices designed to measure stress and strain. The results concluded that there are discrepancies caused by differing measurements of the length of cantilever beams in the MEMS devices. Work is under way to understand the measurement errors and generate standard test methodologies.

4  

JEDEC was once known as the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

TABLE 2.3 Sources of Funding for the Semiconductor Electronics Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1999 to FY 2002

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year 1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2000 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2001 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2002 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

7.7

7.2

7.5

7.5

Competence

0.1

0.2

0.4

0.5

ATP

0.6

0.4

0.4

0.1

Measurement Services (SRM production)

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.1

OA/NFG/CRADA

0.2

0.3

0.1

0.3

Other Reimbursable

0.1

0.0

0.0

0.0

Total

8.7

8.1

8.4

8.5

Full-time permanent staff (total)a

45

39

38

37

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 2.1.

a The number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Semiconductor Electronics Division are shown in Table 2.3. As of January 2002, staffing for the Semiconductor Electronics Division included 37 full-time permanent positions, of which 31 were technical professionals. There were also 29 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.

The division continues to improve its relevance to industry in spite of flat operating budgets. Through collaborative efforts it has been able to have new programs funded and to improve its clean-room capability with the addition of a major new tool. The division has redirected internal resources and also participated in collaborations with other NIST laboratories so that a major thrust in GaN characterization could be assembled, and at the same time it successfully maintained program efforts in oxide reliability, new dielectric characterization, linewidth metrology, MEMS, and other areas.

Despite these successes, the division will be challenged to keep pace with fast-moving industry need for measurements, standards, and new metrology methods. Many areas in the ITRS have no known measurement solutions. Industry has standards needs today that NIST does not have resources to provide. For example, more rapid progress is needed in the development and transfer of CD linewidth, dopant profile, and thin-film thickness standards. Although the new NIST standard for CD measurements from 90 to 120 nm is a major breakthrough, it does not fully meet the most demanding needs of current CMOS production technology with gate lengths as small as 53 nm. Two- and three-dimensional dopant depth profile standards are currently unavailable to industry. As a final example, NIST certified film thickness standards representative of today’s technology—such as silicon dioxide films of the 1.5 to 5 nm thickness—are not available. New capability and infrastructure will be necessary for the division to remain relevant. More experts in new areas and better use of existing staff will be required.

The division’s microfabrication facility currently is the only clean room at NIST with semiconductor device processing capability. This facility was very successfully restored to full operation 2 years

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

ago, and it is now being used by seven divisions within NIST. However, the majority of the equipment in this facility is old and obsolete by industry standards.

The Advanced Measurement Laboratory currently under construction is essential to support the exacting future metrology needs that have been identified by the semiconductor and other nanotechnology industries. The capabilities of this new facility will provide a key opportunity for NIST to add new state-of-the-art semiconductor device processing capability and state-of-the-art measurement tools and other infrastructure required to support NIST’s mission in support of industry. At this time, no overall plan exists for the use or equipping of the AML facility. An overall strategy needs to be developed on how this facility can best be used to support the NIST mission. This strategy should include a prioritized list of key capabilities to be enabled by the facility. A committed budget for operational staffing and equipment needs to be developed once the key capabilities to be housed there are determined. A budget is needed for state-of-the-art equipment that can make full use of the building’s unique environment. This is an opportunity for NIST, in cooperation with industry, to identify key needs that can be addressed at this facility.

The Thin Film Process Metrology project has suffered a reduction in full-time-equivalent research staff at a time when the needs for thin-film process metrology are growing. The panel recommends more effective collaboration between this and other projects within the division to best utilize the limited resources. A positive first step toward that would be to jointly measure the same set of high-k samples with the Advanced MOS Device Reliability and Characterization project to establish possible correlations between optical and electrical properties.

In the Thin Film Process Metrology project, the resources are leveraged through extensive collaborations with industry and academia, where most of the test samples are fabricated. This gives the division little control over the quality of the test samples it measures, especially the high-k dielectrics. Since it is not expected that significant incremental resources will be available to establish comprehensive in-house sample fabrication capability in the foreseeable future, it is very important for division researchers to make judicious choices of the test samples.

The division transferred one of its two molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) machines to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in exchange for a commitment by the base to meet NIST’s future compound semiconductor fabrication needs. The second MBE machine was transferred to NIST Boulder where it could be redeployed to other NIST program needs. This improved the division’s resource base for addressing key measurement needs.

Radio-Frequency Technology Division

Technical Merit

The mission of the Radio-Frequency Technology Division is to provide the national metrology base for characterization of the electromagnetic properties of components, materials, systems, and environments throughout the radio spectrum. The division is divided into two groups: the Radio-Frequency Electronics Group and the Radio-Frequency Fields Group.

The division continues to progress in aligning its projects to the needs of the telecommunications and wireless markets and has made impressive progress in forwarding new programs. The discussion below highlights projects within the division that are advancing the state of the art.

Researchers in the Noise Standards and Measurements project have completed the development of noise parameters for multiport amplifiers, particularly differential amplifiers—which is critical because of the increased use of differential amplifiers in cell phones and other applications.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

The Non-linear Device Characterization project has resulted in generalized, measurement-based models of nonlinear circuits and time-and-frequency-domain models for verification devices. Division researchers have also implemented and demonstrated modulated signal measurements that are critical for the wireless communications industry. This effort includes collaboration with world leaders in instrumentation and nonlinear theory and techniques. The division has demonstrated artificial-neural-network applicability to the estimation of nonlinear scattering parameters and has developed improved simulation for nose-to-nose calibration, which are leading-edge developments.

In a collaboration with the Optoelectronics Division, researchers in the High-Speed Microelectronics project have completed an initial comparison between the sampling scope nose-to-nose and electrooptic sampling system calibrations. Good results were obtained from this comparison. Division researchers also developed a frequency-domain method of characterizing high-impedance probes suitable for performing noninvasive on-wafer waveform and signal-integrity measurements. Through an interdivisional collaboration, researchers are developing a mismatch correction algorithm for time-domain electro-optic sampling systems, an important advance in metrology for the photonics community, specifically addressing component characterization at 40 Gb/s and higher data rates.

The division has also developed high-speed microelectronics metrology techniques that support onwafer metrology, including the fabrication of coplanar and microstrip calibration standards; the development of measurement methods for scattering, impedance, and noise parameters; and the development of methods for the characterization of complex interconnect structures. Division researchers have continued the development of a causal microwave circuit theory whose voltages and currents reproduce the temporal behavior of the actual electric and magnetic fields in the circuit.

The Electromagnetic Properties of Materials project is aligned with industry, DOD, and the National Institute of Justice to develop new and innovative materials measurement methods. Division researchers developed a new cavity method for thin-film characterization and a variable-temperature low-loss-dielectric measurement system. Project researchers are also characterizing phantom materials—synthetic materials that emulate the conductivity of human body tissues for use in tests of metal detector performance.

The Standards for Broadband Wireless Access project continues to provide leadership in standards for the wireless industry. A single air interface standard (IEEE 802.16) for licensed and unlicensed frequency bands in the range 2 to 66 GHz has been approved.

Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) measurements of 1 GHz and higher are being advanced. The division is providing useful information to the EMC community and is working to develop acceptance criteria and site calibration methods for open-area test sites at frequencies greater than 1 GHz. The division is also assisting in the development of standards for the use of nontraditional test facilities such as reverberation chambers and gigahertz transverse electromagnetic mode cells. This work is beneficial to International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) Subcommittee A and to American National Standards Institute (ANSI) C63 standards committees.

The Antenna Metrology project continues its work in millimeter-wave measurements. The millimeter-wave planar near-field measurements will provide U.S. industry the capability to characterize the antenna systems that are required to support emerging technologies such as automobile anticollision radar. This extension of the division’s current capability from 75 GHz up to 110 GHz poses challenges that, if met, will provide the fundamental technical basis that U.S. industry can follow when working with these technologies.

In order to meet the ever-increasing demands of government and industry, NIST recognizes that it must expand its frequency coverage for antenna calibrations and services. To ensure measurement accuracy, an assessment of the quality of the illumination of the measurement system must be deter-

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

mined. The division has developed an innovative technique for characterizing measurement facilities; this technique detects and identifies unwanted RF sources and aids in their ultimate removal.

The division has designed and tested a near-field standard probe incorporating a loop antenna with double gaps. The probe provides the capability to measure both electric and magnetic fields simultaneously. The electro-optic probe is fundamental to providing electromagnetic interference testing capability in areas close to source antennas and near large test objects such as aircraft.

The division continues to provide theoretical understanding and tools to the ultrawideband (UWB) community. By characterizing UWB devices, recent work at NIST has advanced understanding of the potential interference effects of UWB radio and other devices on existing radio services such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) and airport navigations systems. NIST also developed UWB chamber qualification tools based on time-domain evaluation of site attenuation, thus providing a method to directly assess the absorber performance of fully anechoic chambers as called for in draft standards.

Program Relevance and Effectiveness

Through the Power and Voltage Standards project, the Scattering Parameters and Impedance project, and the Noise Standards and Measurements project, which all focus on calibration services, the division provides industry with a variety of core measurement services in RF power, impedance, voltage, and noise. It also provides transfer standards over the frequency range 10 kHz to 110 GHz. These services are important for underpinning industrial measurement, research, and development. The division has increased the level of automation of its services to meet customer needs for speed of execution and low cost. The division has also improved the uncertainty of voltage standards for 2.4-mm coaxial power detectors and developed new capability for calibrating 2.92-mm power detectors in the 0.05- to 40-GHz frequency range. It has also developed noise standards and measurements software for analyzing noise-figure measurements. New noise-parameter measurements are under development.

The division’s research programs are providing key measurement capabilities to the wireless industry, the photonics community, and semiconductor manufacturers. The Electromagnetic Properties of Materials project is supporting many materials measurements needs of the microelectronics, health care, and biotechnology industries. Measurements of low-k dielectrics were made using International SEMATECH-supplied wafers and NIST-developed transmission line methods. Technical Note 1520 was completed summarizing low-temperature cofired ceramic substrate high-frequency measurement technology.

NIST is a central contributor to work on understanding and utilizing reverberation chamber technology for EMC testing. At present, such chambers produce results that do not directly correlate to those of traditional EMC test facilities. NIST is working to provide data to standards-writing bodies to aid in the development of new standards that will utilize these chambers. This is important to myriad industries, such as automotive and aerospace firms and the telecommunications industry, that incorporate electromagnetic components into their products.

The public continues to be concerned about the potential for harm from low-level electromagnetic waves from cellular telephones and other devices. Research on health effects to date has been inconclusive, with many studies showing a lack of understanding of basic RF measurement processes by biological researchers. NIST is providing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with expert guidance in the proper measurement of electromagnetic fields to aid in the repeatability of experiments in this area by investigating the use of reverberation chambers for rodent RF exposure studies.

The Radio-Frequency Technology Division is the primary provider of antenna probe calibration

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

services to U.S. industry and other government agencies. The division develops standards, methods, and instrumentation for measuring the critical performance parameters of antennas and their associated systems. It is currently working closely with the spaceborne phased-array community on techniques for remotely calibrating large, high-performance, phased-array antennas, such as those used in spaceborne synthetic aperture radar systems.

In collaboration with the division, DOD and the radar cross-section (RCS) industry have created and implemented a National DOD Quality Assurance Program for RCS measurements. A recently completed DOD demonstration project evaluated three classes of RCS ranges. The division worked with DOD and the RCS community to establish the calibration and documentation standards. It played a vital role in developing an uncertainty analysis procedure for the measurements (NISTR 5019) and in participating in the formal reviews of the selected RCS ranges.

The Radio-Frequency Technology Division develops and evaluates reliable measurement standards, test methods, and services to support the RF and EMC needs of U.S. industry. The uncertainties of EMC and related measurements directly impact the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers and the reliability of their products. The division’s main objectives are to ensure harmony and international recognition of U.S. measurements for trade, to provide physically correct test methods, to provide national calibration services, and to serve as an impartial expert body for resolving measurement inconsistencies. In order to accomplish these goals, the division is actively involved in international and domestic standards activities. These efforts include having representatives in standards activities run by the International Electrotechnical Commission, CISPR, ANSI, the Society for Automotive Engineers, the U.S. Council of Electromagnetic Laboratories, and IEEE.

The division has taken a proactive role in the development of technically superior standards for wireless communications. Its current focus is on fixed broadband wireless access systems, which have the potential to provide competitive alternative connections to Internet, voice, and video networks for residential and business sites. Spectrum for these services is in private hands, but the wide-scale deployment of systems awaits standardization. To this end, the division has worked to accelerate the approval of the necessary standards. However, the work performed was administrative, not technical. Core metrology programs in the division are in need of resources that could be made available if this administrative support for standards development were moved to another unit in NIST. The panel is not certain that the Radio-Frequency Technology Division is the appropriate body within NIST to take on this effort and recommends that NIST consider where the effort could be most appropriately housed.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Radio-Frequency Technology Division are shown in Table 2.4. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 52 full-time permanent positions, of which 48 were for technical professionals. There were also 10 nonpermanent or supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates or temporary or part-time workers. The division is making a conscious effort to increase collaborations and leverage resources by hosting several guest researchers and using student employees.

Significantly affected by the loss of several key personnel owing to illness and retirement, the division has responded by realigning its staff and hiring several key individuals to complement its current capabilities. These changes position the division well for the future. Even with the pressure to do more with less, the current staff appear to be highly motivated and to be seeking ways to perform their work more efficiently, especially in the areas of calibration and characterization.

The panel observes that flat budgets year after year have resulted in a shrinking workforce within

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

TABLE 2.4 Sources of Funding for the Radio-Frequency Technology Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1999 to FY 2002

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year 1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2000 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2001 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2002 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

6.1

5.9

6.1

6.4

Competence

0.4

0.4

0.5

0.2

ATP

0.0

0.0

0.2

0.4

OA/NFG/CRADA

1.7

1.9

2.3

2.7

Other Reimbursable

1.0

1.2

1.2

1.3

Total

9.2

9.4

10.3

11.0

Full-time permanent staff (total)a

56

57

53

52

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 2.1.

aThe number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

the division. Succession planning factored in with strategic planning is critical to the division’s future and must be done before staff size shrinks to the point that critical work cannot be continued while new capabilities are developed. A strategic plan covering the next 5 years would serve as a useful tool in the human resource planning process as well as in prioritizing programs in a changing environment. Broad guidelines for strategic planning should be developed at the laboratory level, whereas the division level is appropriate for detailed planning and ownership. As with all the divisions, the Radio-Frequency Technology Division should develop long-range plans based on technology trends, and these long-range plans should be incorporated in the EEEL budget process to provide adequate personnel, facilities, and equipment resources.

The panel again notes that the status of Building 24 in Boulder is marginally functional. Road construction next to the facility has been completed, and the air conditioning system has been installed. However, the air conditioning and humidity-control system needs to be adjusted and the fire protection system installed before the facility can be considered truly operational. The current state of the facility will significantly compromise the division’s ability to perform near-field antenna pattern measurements as it pushes to higher frequencies.

Each facility used by the division must be able to control its environmental factors. Without this ability, the quality of the final product delivered to the customer is significantly degraded, if not compromised. Attempting to retrofit environmental controls after construction is very inefficient and expensive.

The division has developed a proposal for a new, world-class radio-frequency electromagnetics experimental research and measurement-standards facility. The proposed Radio-Frequency Electro-magnetic-Field Metrology Laboratory (REML) would provide the capability for addressing a broad range of national and international requirements for precise characterization of free-space and bounded electromagnetic (EM) fields throughout the radio spectrum. Owing to the pervasive use of wireless communications and other emerging electronic technologies, the performance of measurements and calibrations outdoors is becoming less feasible. Because of the laboratory’s proximity to potential

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

transmitter locations, the Boulder EM measurement facilities will likely be adversely affected if high-definition television (HDTV) networks become operational over the next several years. Other countries have invested in developing next-generation electromagnetically shielded indoor measurement, research, and calibration facilities. This new facility is critical to the future success of the Radio-Frequency Technology Division. The proposed new facility would also consolidate the electromagnetic field laboratories and personnel under one roof, fostering increased interaction and collaboration as well as increased efficiency in meeting customer needs. The formal engineering and architectural study for the REML has not been performed, but short-term plans for enhancing the existing laboratories will result in more resistance to developing the REML. The panel urges the division to complete a formal engineering study for the REML and to secure top-level NIST support for the facility. In addition to developing the REML facility, strong consideration should be given to building a new open-area test site facility at the nearby national radio quiet zone.

Electromagnetic Technology Division

Technical Merit

The stated mission of the Electromagnetic Technology Division is to enhance the nation’s competitiveness by creating, developing, and promulgating state-of-the-art measurement capabilities and standards using quantum phenomena, the low thermal noise available at cryogenics temperatures, and fabrication of specialized integrated circuits, including nanometer-sized devices; emphasizing electrical standards; using unique technical capabilities to assist other NIST organizations with exceptionally difficult measurements; determining data, theory, models, and materials necessary to effectively apply results; and assisting other industrial, government, and scientific organizations to adapt division-developed techniques to their needs.

The Electromagnetic Technology Division is focused on developing electronic standards and measurement techniques based on quantum effects unique to cryogenic and nanoscale devices. This division has been highly successful at implementing such phenomena to achieve unparalleled precision in a range of standards applications and in developing instruments to solve challenging measurement problems. In the past year, several of these standards and instruments have been successfully transferred to other divisions within EEEL and to other laboratories within NIST; they are having considerable impact on work in those programs. In addition, the division’s world-class investigators have made significant contributions to the understanding of fundamental science and have proposed new standards based on these advances. New efforts in quantum cryptography and quantum computing have produced promising results, and existing capabilities are being directed to problems in the NIST Strategic Focus Areas of homeland security and nanotechnology.

The Electromagnetic Technology Division does not focus on a single industry, but sees its overall mission as the development of unique standards for a wide range of electrical- and electronics-based industries. Its focus extends beyond the development and maintenance of electrical standards to issues regarding measurement instruments and techniques, including advanced device-fabrication technologies. The division balances its responsibilities to industry, government, and scientific organizations with programs directed toward fundamental work that can potentially lead to new standards, primarily in quantum phenomena. This exploratory work is an essential element of the division’s value.

A major reorganization of the division’s program took place during the past year, resulting in a realignment of existing efforts and in the initiation of new program directions. The reorganization was driven in part by several personnel changes, most notably by the untimely death of a long-time staff

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

member who was an expert in high-temperature superconductor thin-film device fabrication and physics. The reorganization was also motivated by the need to balance the size and resources of the division’s projects. The division now works on the following four projects: Quantum Voltage, Cryogenic Sensors, Nanoscale Cryoelectronics, and Terahertz Technology. Each of these projects has a leader, with all the management responsibilities that group leaders have in other divisions. The projects tend to be smaller than those in other EEEL divisions.

The Electromagnetic Technology Division has a well-focused research agenda and is doing outstanding work in each of its four projects. The strength of this program largely stems from three factors: (1) an extremely talented staff, which includes staff scientists who are recognized worldwide for their leadership and innovation in electronic devices, qualified technicians, and bright postdoctoral associates; (2) a strong facility infrastructure for device fabrication and testing; and (3) effective management. Division management has done an excellent job of focusing resources on activities that fulfill the division’s obligations to the mission of NIST and to its broad customer base. At the same time, management has established a scientific climate promoting creativity in exploratory research that is making a significant impact in fundamental science and positioning the division to develop new standards in the future. Combined, these assets make for a highly successful and dynamic division.

The Quantum Voltage project develops new AC and DC voltage standard devices based on superconducting Josephson integrated circuits, and it develops metrology systems using Josephson arrays. The project continues to upgrade the performance and user-friendliness of the conventional DC voltage standards. A portable 1-V DC standard chip has been successfully packaged and operated on a 4-K cryocooler. Windows-based control software for a 10-V Josephson standard has allowed remote operations, thus reducing the costs of the system by facilitating off-site maintenance and allowing it to be more compatible with present-day computer operating systems. A significant advance toward creating lumped arrays of Josephson junctions for the AC voltage standard has been made by using stacked titanium-barrier junctions. More than 2,000 doubly-stacked junctions have been connected in series, and tests have demonstrated the first constant voltage steps, which are essential for the AC standard. These stacked junctions will be important for the programmable AC and DC voltage standards and for systems with improved bandwidths and operating margins. The division now seeks to fabricate arrays that perform as lumped circuit elements at microwave frequencies. The technical challenge is to pack these arrays into a space of less than one-quarter of a wavelength. The stacked titanium-barrier junctions help meet this challenge, but reproducibility of the current system must be improved. Other materials systems such as Nb-PdAu bilayers, yttrium-barium-copper oxide (YBCO) in-line junctions, and Ga-damaged Nb are also being studied.

Work on the Josephson arbitrary waveform synthesizer for AC and DC voltage standards continues to progress. Researchers have been able to increase the output voltage to 177 mV peak-to-peak and have demonstrated improved filters for broadband operation above 10 GHz. The waveform synthesizer will be used as a calculable calibration noise source for an electronically based Johnson noise thermometer. The division has completed needed cross-correlation electronics, and preliminary tests of these electronics are under way.

The Cryogenic Sensor project, now quite mature, is a tightly focused program based on state-of-the-art infrared and x-ray microcalorimeters that employ superconducting transition-edge bolometers as detectors of radiation. The project seeks to develop these systems and to apply them to measurements of electromagnetic signals for applications in the semiconductor industry and in astronomy. The division now seeks to produce user-friendly systems that combine quantum efficient superconducting detectors operated at low temperatures coupled to efficient room-temperature electronics for data processing. This ambitious engineering strategy is necessary to make the technology accessible to custom-

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

ers. The panel was impressed with progress made on the x-ray microanalysis of particle contaminants in semiconductor processing. This technology is now being commercialized worldwide, and two U.S. companies have been licensed by NIST to implement the technology.

A milestone in the Cryogenic Sensor project has been the placement of an x-ray microcalorimeter in the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory. This instrument is now in full operation and is achieving unprecedented energy resolution in the microanalysis of thin film and particles. The CSTL is using this instrument to map out the L and M energy lines of elements that have previously been difficult to resolve.

Significant progress has also been made in the Cryogenic Sensor project in the development of microfabricated superconductor bolometer arrays. This research seeks to increase the count rate, reduce data acquisition times, and achieve improved spatial resolution for imaging with these detector arrays; the implementation of an improved scheme for the multiplexed readout of the arrays is also included. This approach should prove scalable up to at least kilopixel arrays. One challenge facing this work is the need for a reproducible process for making the bolometer arrays, including control of the superconducting transition temperature of the bolometers and their arrangement in a thermally isolated matrix. New approaches involve sputtered molybdenum/copper (Mo/Cu) proximity bilayers or Mo implanted with magnetic ions for the sensors, and bulk or surface micromachining for the array structure. All the components for the detector arrays are now in place, and the division expects implementation of this technology to occur in the next year. Infrared versions of these arrays are being developed in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for radio astronomy detection. The first implementation of an 8-bit multiplexed linear array has been demonstrated at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, and prototype two-dimensional arrays are being fabricated for deployment at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope.

The Nanoscale Cryoelectronics project is developing new technology for electrical measurements such as capacitance and current, including single-photon sources and microwave-frequency metrology for nonlinear superconducting filters. The project’s research is based on nanoscale single-electron devices, thin-film fabrication of emerging materials, and micromechanical devices. The fabrication technology for this project relies on its flexible microfabrication facility.

The single-electron devices are being used to develop a portable capacitance standard based on counting electrons. The error rate for the single-electron pump has been measured and compared with theoretical modeling of fundamental noise processes. The resulting confirmation of the theoretical models will allow the operational margins of these electron pumps to be set. In an effort to make the single-electron capacitance standard portable, the electron pump and the electrometer chip have been cycled in temperature to mimic operation in a portable Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator. The daily cycling of the refrigerator did not cause the rearrangement of the offset charges, an encouraging result that is also important for other single-electron devices.

Quantum dots of InAs are being developed as single-photon detectors. By coupling a single-electron electrometer to the QD, single-electron events can be correlated with the single-photon detection. A superconducting Cooper-pair pump has been designed by the division and will be fabricated and tested soon. A superconducting Cooper-pair pump would enable the long-sought quantum-based current standard. This, with the Josephson voltage standard and the QH resistance standard would complete the quantum metrology triangle of current, voltage, and resistance.

Microwave-frequency metrology is being applied to thin-film materials of high-temperature superconductors and ferroelectric materials. The phase relationship between fundamental parameters and higher harmonics has now been modeled, and reference standards are being developed. A superconducting microwave power limiter has been made and tested at 40 GHz.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

The Terahertz Technology project combines applications of terahertz radiation for advanced measurements with an emerging program in quantum information processing and computation. The terahertz detection work has two components: imaging and spectroscopy. In imaging, small-scale arrays of fabricated bolometers are being explored for the detection at room temperature of concealed weapons. These are also being used for astrophysical applications at low temperatures (<300 mK). A major milestone in weapons detection was achieved in FY 2001 with the acquisition of a remote image of a handgun made by a scanned single-pixel bolometer. The project now seeks to upgrade to a 120-element focal plane array to allow full-image acquisition in an estimated 20 seconds at a distance of 8 m. In spectroscopy, the project is addressing issues of relevance to both the semiconductor industry and the astrophysical community. For example, submillimeter tomographic spectroscopy is utilizing rotational absorption spectra in molecular gases to monitor plasma-etching processes. This tool, developed in collaboration with the Physics Laboratory, has been shown to be effective for gas species identification and endpoint detection in thin-film etching processes.

Another highly successful effort has been the study of antenna-coupled hot-electron bolometers for high-frequency radio astronomy, in coordination with NASA. These devices outperform superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) and Schottky mixers at frequencies above 1 THz. The project has focused on antenna and sensor design and on schemes for characterizing receiver performance.

The newest and potentially most exciting effort in the Terahertz Technology project is in quantum computation and quantum information processing. The division has demonstrated single-photon counting using a bolometer array with weak coherent photon sources. Single-photon counting is essential for verifying secure encrypted communication via quantum key distribution. The project also explores the use of single Josephson junctions as qubits for quantum computing. The division has demonstrated the entanglement of the ground state and first excited state by probing the Rabi oscillations between these states in the presence of microwave irradiation. Experiments are under way to measure and understand the coherence time in this system to assess its potential for quantum logic operations. This effort is directly relevant to NIST’s Strategic Focus Area on information technology.

Program Relevance and Effectiveness

Each of the Electromagnetic Technology Division’s four projects has well-defined goals directed to satisfying an identified customer need. The Quantum Voltage Project seeks to develop new voltage standard devices based on Josephson integrated circuits and to develop metrology systems using Josephson arrays for customers in the U.S. electronics instrumentation industry, the standards community both nationally and internationally, and the U.S. military. The Cryogenic Sensor project seeks to create unique devices and systems for metrology and instrumentation based on submicron devices and millikelvin temperatures for customers in the semiconducting processing community, the chemical standards community, and NASA. The Nanoscale Cryogenic project will aid and accelerate the development of new thin-film materials and devices for electronic applications, where a key issue has been microwave losses in high-temperature superconductor electronics. The main customer is the telecommunications industry, which is poised to implement high-temperature superconductor filters into cellular base stations. The international standards community is served by the capacitance and current standards developed in this project. The goal of the Terahertz Technology project is to develop sensors in the millimeter-wave and near-infrared regime with improved accuracy, speed, sensitivity, and functionality. Customers for this work include the radiometry and thermometry standards laboratories, NASA, and DOD contractors. The newly formed effort in quantum information science is relevant to national interests in security, communications, and computing.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

The Electromagnetic Technology Division delivered a new DC Josephson voltage standard system to the Electricity Division. These programmable voltage standards may soon become the primary source for NIST’s voltage calibration services. Intercomparisons of measurements made with these systems are under way with NMIs in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan. This system will also be important in EEEL’s Electronic Kilogram project.

The Josephson Arbitrary waveform synthesizer will enhance the metrological precision of the voltage standard and raise its AC frequency range. This system forms the basis for the proposed all-electrical Johnson noise thermometer. In addition, a similar system is being developed in collaboration with Northrop-Grumman for high-performance radar applications.

The Cryogenic Sensor project has several initiatives with potential impact. Microcalorimeter arrays for x-ray and infrared spectroscopy are very attractive to the semiconductor industry and may become a mainline diagnostic tool for manufacturing.

A single-electron capacitance standard with a portable cryocooler is being developed in collaboration with the Electricity Division, to allow a direct comparison with the calculable capacitor. This portable quantum capacitance standard will support industries that manufacture precision electronics instrumentation. The completion of the quantum metrology triangle, if achieved, will also be important for fundamental science and metrology.

The nonlinear microwave response of high-temperature superconducting thin films has been tested and modeled. A nonlinear phase reference standard has been developed in collaboration with the Radio-Frequency Technology Division to support the superconducting filter industry. Also, high-temperature superconducting microwave power limiters have been developed for the Office of Naval Research to protect superconducting transmission lines.

The development of a 100-GHz system for detecting concealed weapons could make concealed weapons detection much less obtrusive and more widely used, saving lives and reducing confrontations. This is just one of many efforts within the division that could benefit the emerging homeland security SFA.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Electromagnetic Technology Division are shown in Table 2.5. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 25 full-time permanent positions, of which 23 were for technical professionals. There were also 5 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.

Personnel issues have been admirably addressed by the hiring or planned hiring of several new staff members and associated technical staff and postdoctoral researchers. This, coupled with its recent reorganization, should put the division in a solid position to proceed with its objectives in the next year.

The division relies heavily on access to state-of-the-art microfabrication facilities for producing submicron single-electron tunneling devices, Josephson junctions arrays, DC superconducting quantum interference devices, and MEMS devices. To provide this capability, a major renovation and expansion of the clean-room facility at NIST Boulder was undertaken during the past few years. The clean room is now in routine operation. In addition to standard commercial clean-room instrumentation, the division has invested considerable time and effort in constructing several state-of-the-art etching systems for specific projects. New systems for lithography, especially a newly arrived pattern generator and a planned new wafer-stepper, will greatly speed and enhance the reliability of mask making and pattern printing.

The microfabrication facility fabricates structures for projects within this and other divisions. All the devices used in the Josephson voltage standards, the single-electronic devices, the single-photon

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

TABLE 2.5 Sources of Funding for the Electromagnetic Technology Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1999 to FY 2002

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year 1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2000 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2001 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2002 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

4.6

3.2

3.4

3.1

Competence

0.5

0.3

0.5

0.7

ATP

0.4

0.2

0.4

0.7

OA/NFG/CRADA

2.7

2.1

2.4

3.0

Other Reimbursable

0.1

0.1

0.2

0.0

Total

8.3

5.9a

6.9

7.5

Full-time permanent staff (total)b

38

34

22a

25

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 2.1.

aThe decrease in funding between FY 1999 and FY 2000 and the decrease in personnel between January 2000 and January 2001 reflect a reorganization in which several projects from the Electromagnetic Technology Division were moved into the newly formed Magnetic Technology Division.

bThe number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

devices, and the microcalorimetry projects are fabricated in this facility. Micromachined ion traps are made for use in atomic clocks and quantum computing applications. Surface micromachined thermal isolation structures are made for cryogenic detectors. It is essential that this facility be maintained in Boulder. This is a flexible microfabrication facility that allows lithography on a large range of materials. The work done at this facility cannot be done in a dedicated silicon microfabrication facility because of the stringent and constraining requirements of the silicon process.

Substantial remodeling of several of the large laboratories in the division is nearly complete. However, the age of the building itself militates against effective climate control. The temperature in some of the precision measurement laboratories can vary greatly during the day in the summer. Since this could become a major problem, it would be advantageous for NIST to plan for construction of a new building in the not-too-distant future.

A serious, recent equipment limitation has resulted from high demand for the division’s only dilution refrigerator system caused by increased use by the single-electronics research and the initiation of the quantum information effort. A second refrigerator now on order will relieve this problem.

Optoelectronics Division

Technical Merit

The mission of the Optoelectronics Division is to provide the optoelectronics industry and its suppliers and customers with comprehensive and technically advanced measurement capabilities, standards, and traceability to those standards. The division is organized in three groups: Sources and Detectors, Optical Fiber and Components, and Optoelectronic Manufacturing.

The division currently has eight projects: Continuous Wave Laser Radiometry, Pulsed Laser Radi-

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

ometry, High-Speed Measurements, Interferometry and Polarimetry, Spectral and Nonlinear Properties, Optical Materials Metrology, Nanostructure Fabrication and Metrology, and Semiconductor Growth and Devices. Each project has specific goals and objectives, with cross-project teamwork occurring where appropriate. The division’s program is balanced and delivers important calibration services and standards to industry while initiating new activities in emerging technology areas.

The laser radiometry research activities in the Sources and Detectors Group is of critical importance for many areas of the U.S. optoelectronics industry, for semiconductor optical lithography advances, and for other important commercial-sector and DOD programs. The panel was particularly impressed with the division’s laser-optimized cryogenic radiometer, its expanded work on high-accuracy optical fiber power calibration sources, and the development of the SiC-based 157-nm excimer laser calorimeter, all of which are essential for next-generation lithographic systems. The latter work, performed in collaboration with International SEMATECH, builds on the division’s impressive past work for the 193-nm excimer laser power calibration system, which is currently being used in the development and application of 193-nm semiconductor lithography systems. Division research on beam homogenizer development is essential to further progress. The panel encourages further work in this area and the demonstration of the fully functional calorimeter for 157-nm operation.

The High-Speed Measurements project is well poised to impact high-speed optoelectronic device development and its use in optical information-based technologies. The project’s research team has pushed the measurement capability of the frequency response of sources and detectors to include both amplitude and phase and is planning to evolve its measurement capability to 110 GHz by the end of FY 2002. The area of high-speed measurements is of critical importance to optical information technologies and applications. The measurement methods developed will undoubtedly impact high-speed receiver design, high-speed transmitter drivers, and optical-fiber system characterization and measurement systems.

In the High-Speed Measurements project, electro-optical sampling research is important, has great potential for synergistic advances, and needs to be emphasized. The division’s application of heterodyne techniques for ultrahigh-speed system analysis is an innovative and important development. Research should continue on understanding the relationships between time-domain and frequency-domain measurements through the development of mathematically rigorous “de-embedding” techniques—for example, optical impulse-response measurements. The panel believes that the electro-optic sampling research performed in the Optoelectronics Division is particularly important for next-generation systems and needs to be accelerated if possible.

Since high-speed measurements require increasing bandwidths, the encroachment of noise into the measurements is unavoidable. For commercial applications, techniques that can provide ultrawide bandwidths with low accompanying noise become critical. The NIST electro-optical sampling methodology is an excellent technique for high-speed sampling. Increasing the stability of the sampling sources and reducing averaging times—especially for measurement techniques in which the high-speed electrical signals are not initiated by the probing optical source and/or real-time applications—can potentially lead to advances in this optical sampling technique. For example, all-optical sampling oscilloscopes and all-optical bit error rate analyzers will be needed for optical information systems operating at 160 Gb/s.

To maintain and push the capabilities of these measurement techniques for emerging applications, new methodologies will need to be developed. For example, current optical information systems are being deployed at 10 Gb/s, with 40-Gb/s systems being designed and planned for deployment in early 2003. In order for NIST to maintain its leadership role, it must look toward the design of systems operating at 160 Gb/s, which will need measurement capabilities in excess of 500 GHz. This added flexibility would undoubtedly increase the versatility of optical sampling, not only for measurements and characterization,

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
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but also for the development of new tools that will be needed within the next 3 to 5 years. The panel believes that NIST can achieve these goals with increased personnel and infrastructure.

The quality and direction of the current work in the Optical Fiber and Components Group is world-class, and its accomplishments are critical to the development of optical networks. The panel particularly notes the excellent role that staff members have played in the development of robust, high-reliability wavelength standards that will permit faster expansion of the optoelectronics industry and promote economically viable installation of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) communications systems. The Optoelectronics Division excels in the measurement and standards development for polarization-dependent loss (PDL), relative group delay (RGD), and polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) systems. The division has been an innovator and worldwide leader in these important areas. As the performance of commercial optical communications systems increases from 10 Gb/s to 40 Gb/s, these standards activities will increase in importance dramatically. The panel strongly encourages NIST to expand these efforts in support of critical industry needs.

The Interferometry and Polarimetry project focuses on developing measurements and standards for supporting the commercialization of WDM high-speed optical fiber transmission systems. Network and service providers face the dilemma of high operating and maintenance costs and declining revenues and profits. Ultralong-haul (>1,500 km) and high-bit-rate (40 Gb/s) optical networks hold promise for reducing the cost of service and facilitating the rapid positioning of new services. The division’s work on chromatic and polarization-mode dispersion, wavelength calibration measurements, polarization-dependent loss, and wavelength shift have been excellent and are key to the successful introduction and deployment of these networks.

The panel notes that the PMD standard development is excellent but suggests that it needs to be implemented in collaboration with equipment vendors and that a suitable partner in the commercial sector should be found. The panel encourages further development of work in these areas and has several suggestions for future directions. Physical PMD standards are useful, but a detailed fundamental standard description of results is needed to define and fully characterize PMD. The panel encourages NIST to quantify PMD compensation and to develop industry standards and understanding of this process. Developing a joint working group with the Telecommunications Industries Association (TIA) and TIA industrial members and engaging in outreach to available resources in industry and academia can help develop a picture of the current status of the understanding and measurement of PMD. Based upon the study of PMD issues, the division should consider forming an industrywide forum on PMD to develop a more complete picture of the problem and its impact on various applications.

The importance of wavelength standards for optical communications systems cannot be overestimated, and the role of the Optoelectronics Division in providing these important standards is extremely important.

The fundamental measurement techniques and standards developed in the Spectral and Nonlinear Properties project are necessary to support the U.S. fiber-optic communications industry. An extremely important area is wavelength calibration transfer standards. The division has produced an SRM for the most commonly used fiber communications band, the C-band of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier. Further funding is necessary to expand these efforts to create an SRM for the L-band and the S-band. In addition to expanding the wavelength range of wavelength calibration services, there may also be a need to increase the wavelength accuracy. A study will be necessary to determine what the ultimate wavelength accuracy goal should be. Two developments potentially motivating higher accuracy measurements are the move to closer wavelength channel spacings (<25 GHz) and the move to systems with multiple filters and wavelength multiplexers and demultiplexers in the line.

The carbon monoxide-based standards developed in the Spectral and Nonlinear Properties project

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

are extremely useful and should result in high demand. The panel strongly supports continued activities in these areas, particularly in the L-band from λ=1565 nm to 1625 nm.

Nonlinearities in optical fiber affect the performance of optical communications systems, and a thorough understanding of the nonlinearities will aid companies in producing better system designs. Applying NIST-quality standards to studies of optical nonlinearities is important. In many cases, the impact of fiber nonlinearities depends on the specific details of the fiber design, so it is important for the division to closely couple its nonlinear studies to the fundamentals of fiber design. In particular, nonlinear performance should be described in terms of accurate measurements of fiber power, core diameter, index of refraction, and any other pertinent parameter. There is a need for accurate power measurements for fiber power levels much higher than the currently supported 50 mW. The division’s work on nonlinearities in microstructure fiber seems especially interesting, because it has the potential to discover pertinent fiber parameters for nonlinear frequency generation and to find new ways to characterize the pertinent parameters of these new types of fibers.

An important part of the research on nonlinear characterization is the supporting modeling work. Evaluating the accuracy of various modeling techniques, especially as they relate to Raman amplification and noise generation, could be very important. The panel suggests that the division look for opportunities to transfer its results to industry and verify its models by working with commercial modeling companies.

The Optoelectronic Manufacturing Group effort has continued to develop significant contacts with customers and stakeholders through direct contact with users, participation in technical conferences, workshops of the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association, and the publication of results. The group has published results in archival journals and given presentations at relevant technical conferences. Developing low-cost, reliable manufacturing techniques, monitoring and measurement techniques, and SRMs remains of great importance for the U.S. optoelectronics industry, especially as many device companies continue to expand their use of outsourcing for semiconductor materials from epitaxial foundries. The work of this group in developing new standards for materials and processes is important and well justified. The panel continues to believe that a focus on in situ approaches to the metrology of epitaxial layers during growth and to the development of standard reference data and materials should be emphasized.

Materials purity is of paramount importance to improving many device performance characteristics. As the panel has previously noted, measurements of the purity of source materials (particularly gaseous source materials) is a critical area that has the potential for broad impact in compound semiconductor research and manufacturing. The panel applauds the division’s work with gas vendors to establish commercially viable advanced techniques for the analysis of water in the hydride precursors used in vapor-phase epitaxy and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition growth of III-V materials (e.g., arsine, phosphine, and ammonia). The division’s collaboration with the NIST Chemical Sciences and Technology Laboratory is also very important. The panel continues to encourage emphasis on the development of in situ techniques for real-time analysis of purity.

The panel strongly supports the development of alloy composition SRMs and the refining of measurement techniques to determine the alloy composition and thickness of compound semiconductor epitaxial layers. The focus should continue to be on the development of accurate techniques for the determination of alloy compositions and uniformity, especially in the high-Al-composition regime for AlGaAs alloys, and on the effect of AlGaAs alloy composition variations on the oxidation properties of these materials. Measurements of composition uniformity in InGaAsP should also be continued, in close collaboration with industrial partners. The division should focus on performing analyses with accuracies that are not within the capabilities of commercially available equipment. In doing so,

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

emphasis should be placed on improving the performance and accuracy of commercially available techniques (such as photoluminescence and photoreflectance mapping, and x-ray diffraction mapping) and the development of new techniques (such as microfocus x-ray and micro Raman).

The panel is pleased to see the molecular beam epitaxy III-V activity refocused on the growth of InAs quantum dots and the establishment of a future standards development activity on such nanostructures. The work on photon turnstiles and quantum cryptography and studies of single-electron devices using these QD materials are also of great potential interest. It is important that the development of electronic models for single-photon turnstiles and photonic crystals be carried out in a timely fashion in order to provide direction for the work and also to indicate the viability of InAs QDs for this purpose. Collaborations with other NIST organizations have been developed, and further pursuit of such interactions is encouraged. If appropriate materials can be obtained from collaborators or vendors, this route should be pursued. The work on electrical contacts to individual QDs should be carried out in some way that will provide electrical injection into covered QDs (i.e., QDs with an appropriate passivation or cladding layer), since it is likely that surface states will limit the performance of bare QD electronic structures.

Program Relevance and Effectiveness

As discussed above, the overall relevance of the Optoelectronics Division’s projects is very high. The division’s impact on the U.S. industry has been significant and is of increasing importance. Division programs support many sectors of the optoelectronics industry and the semiconductor industry. The measurements and standards that the division is developing and supporting enable systems that are key to the development of viable, cost-effective, high-speed optical networking and communications. As these systems come closer to deployment, the need for standards and measurements in this area grows. To fully meet these needs would require an expansion of NIST efforts in this area.

The panel believes that the division’s important results could be even more widely disseminated. For example, best practices and instructions for key measurement techniques could be placed on the division’s Web site, SRMs could be more heavily marketed at meetings of groups such as the International Society for Optical Engineering and the Conference on Lasers and Electrooptics, and division staff could expand their involvement with professional societies and in organizing conferences.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Optoelectronics Division are shown in Table 2.6. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 39 full-time permanent positions, of which 34 were for technical professionals. There were also 5 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.

Funding and staffing limitations restrict the scope of the Optoelectronics Division’s projects. The division’s funding has not kept pace with the cost of doing leading-edge research and standards development in this rapidly advancing area. Facility deficiencies also hamper the division’s work, and upgrades are long overdue. Because the division is working with very limited resources, critical functions are likely underdeveloped. A review of priorities is necessary to assure that the most important programs are funded sufficiently.

The panel is concerned about increases in the relative fraction of non-STRS funds in the operating budget and about the sustainability of the programs based on such “soft” money. The proposed NIST Office of Optoelectronics Programs also needs to be fully funded. The need for this program is increasingly important and relevant to the U.S. economy.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

TABLE 2.6 Sources of Funding for the Optoelectronics Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1999 to FY 2002

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year 1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2000 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2001 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2002 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

5.6

5.5

5.9

5.5

Competence

0.0

0.2

0.2

0.4

ATP

0.6

0.6

0.9

0.8

Measurement Services (SRM production)

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.3

OA/NFG/CRADA

1.1

1.6

2.0

1.9

Other Reimbursable

0.3

0.3

0.5

0.3

Total

7.7

8.5

9.8

9.2

Full-time permanent staff (total)a

37

37

35

39

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 2.1.

aThe number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

The panel commends the division on leveraging available human resources through the development of synergistic intradivisional and cross-divisional activities, especially in the areas of electro-optical sampling, supercontinuum and nonlinear properties research, and QD and single-photon turnstiles. Research partnerships have been used very effectively to ameliorate staffing limitations. The panel notes that recent staff hires are relatively early in their careers and consequently, the division’s expertise in some areas may have decreased owing to the loss of some senior personnel to the private sector.

Magnetic Technology Division

Technical Merit

The mission of the Magnetic Technology Division is to strengthen the U.S. economy and improve the quality of life by providing measurement science and technology primarily for the magnetic technology and superconductor industries. The panel was gratified to see the mission statement modified to include the phrase “strengthen the U.S. economy and improve the quality of life,” in response to its comments in last year’s assessment. The panel believes that the mission should also reflect the division’s commitment to advancing standards.

The Magnetic Technology Division is organized in two groups: Magnetics and Superconductivity. The division has overcome the major challenge posed by lack of leadership with the appointment of a division chief from within EEEL. The new division chief has provided able and effective leadership, and staff morale continues to improve from a low point when the division was first formed several years ago. The division chief is assisted in day-to-day operations by the staff member who is both group leader for the Magnetics Group and acting group leader for the Superconductivity Group. The division

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

needs permanent staffing for both group leader positions but is otherwise effectively organized and is exhibiting steady progress in its organizational maturity.

The Standards for Superconductor Characterization project has made considerable progress in the past year on issues important to the superconductor industry. Significant testing was completed for high-current conductors procured as part of the U.S. contribution to the Large Hadron Collider at the Centre Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN). An important study of residual resistance ratio testing of industrially produced niobium (Nb) plate for high-power accelerator RF cavities was undertaken. Some defects in the test procedure of an industry test subcontractor were identified and corrected. The need for new standards for both high-current magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) conductors and for marginally stable Nb3Sn conductors has been addressed, and a new working group for critical current testing has been established. A study has been completed on inductive effects in critical current testing, and it explains a common but often ignored feature of critical current tests. Six new International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards have been issued, and another six are being worked on. In short, a significant and strong user interaction has taken place throughout the year, and it both demonstrates and strengthens the relevance of the project to its industry and national laboratory user base.

The Superconductor Electromagnetic Measurements project utilizes unique electromechanical capabilities, is one of very few such projects worldwide, and has an international reputation. In the past year, important critical current versus strain properties measurements were performed on new-generation, very high current density Nb3Sn wire and on alloy-strengthened Ag-sheathed Bi-2212 wire. The study of cracking mechanisms in Y-Ba-Cu-O-coated conductor prototypes remains a major focus.

Nanoprobe Imaging project researchers have made in situ measurements of ferromagnetic films using MEMS magnetometers. Very small moments can be measured with this technique while the film is deposited, resulting in the potential for accurately controlling the thickness and moment of thin magnetic films as they are being deposited. This technique has the theoretical sensitivity to measure the magnetic equivalent of 0.02-nm-thick Fe film. The technology could potentially be very useful to the data storage industry. The division should now perform a controlled test of this method in a factory to compare it with existing control methods.

Another project result is the development of a microscopic Scanning Microwave Power Meter using dielectric materials. This is very promising for the measurement of microwave field distributions near micrometer-size microwave transmission lines. Good progress has also been made in acquiring the ability to measure spin decay in magnetic nanodots. These technologies show promise in aiding the communications and data processing industries, which need to measure high-frequency signals on a micrometer scale.

In the Magnetic Recording Measurements project, a high-speed version of the nanoscale recording system (NRS) for magnetic tape forensic analysis has been developed. This effort responded to a previous panel recommendation. The new system uses an 8 × 8 array of magnetic recording elements to increase data rate. NIST has provided the instrumentation and consulting to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Transportation Safety Board on data recovery from low-density storage media such as analog, audio, and VHS. NRS has also been used for noninvasive probing of fields caused by currents. NRS has been used in failure analysis and on-chip metrology in the semiconductor industry and has application to relay aging and fault detection. The division also improved the technology this year through the development of software to convert the field map data to a current map.

Excellent progress has been made in developing an integral superconducting flux-measurement loop for absolute calibration and in developing an inductive magnetic standard with a size of approximately 1 square cm and a magnetic moment of 0.1 to 1 memu. A round-robin evaluation to test these

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

technologies is scheduled for 2002. In situ surface magnetometry is of great interest for characterizing the surfaces of thin magnetic layers, which are very common in data storage. These capabilities are badly needed by the data storage industry. Progress continued on the theory of surface states, also important work.

Researchers in the Magnetodynamics project have completed and published several studies on the understanding of high-speed switching in magnetic materials. The work on surface versus bulk dynamics in NiFe, the study of dynamic anisotropy in permalloy films of various thicknesses, and the modeling of damping physics should be of interest both to researchers and to engineers seeking to design high-speed magnetic devices. The study of dynamic anisotropy has raised some interesting questions on the origin of damping, since it cannot be explained by simple dipole-dipole interaction as was previously believed. Work to understand this phenomenon should continue. This work done thus far has been on large permalloy films. The panel suggests that it would be very useful to extend the work to smaller-patterned films representing more closely what would be used in actual devices such as a thin-film writer. The panel also suggests extending the work to high-coercivity films for media. The research team is active in transferring its work to industry and academia. For example, its Pulsed Inductive Microwave Magnetometer (PIMM) is used by several universities and an industrial firm, and the team is collaborating with industry on high-speed inductive current probes. The researchers have also initiated DARPA-funded research on spins in semiconductors and have ongoing collaborations on spin momentum transfer. This work promises to illuminate some of the basic physics associated with using spins in practical devices. New research on spin waves and damping in nanostructures is also of potentially great use to industry in designing nanostructures such as patterned media.

In the Magnetic Thin Films and Devices project, research on switching on spin valves and magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) devices is valuable. In MRAM, the switching dynamics and the presence of metastable states are fundamental problems that need to be addressed to determine the commercial viability of MRAM devices. The research on high-frequency magnetic noise in spin valves is valuable because it helps elucidate a potentially important contribution to overall noise of high-density recording systems. This work should be extended using state-of-the-art or near-state-of-the-art heads. The division’s research on the control and engineering of magnetic damping should be useful to engineers working on high-frequency devices; that work received much attention from industry in the past year. Research on the measurement of spin wave oscillations, the electrical detection of electronic spin resonance, the in situ measurement of conductance and magnetoconductance, and the on-wafer measurement of magnetostriction are all promising technologies for use in the storage and electronics industry.

Program Relevance and Effectiveness

The Magnetic Technology Division’s superconductor work is well aimed at meeting needs of the U.S. superconductor industry and its big project customers in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories. This is illustrated by the strong external funding for its mechanical property research and the wide approval given to the standards work that it leads.

One of the division’s main goals is the dissemination of standards to industry. This year saw major progress with the development of a superconducting flux standard, which is ready for dissemination to industry in 2002. Standards are also needed for magnetostriction, magnetic imaging, and related areas. Standards based on quantum mechanics would be a suitable long-range focus for the group, as it would enable a substantial increase in accuracy of the fundamental magnetic standards.

The division has done excellent work in advanced measurement that is highly relevant to industry,

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

government, and the general scientific and engineering communities. This includes work on MEMS magnetometers, PIMM collaboration and measurements, control of damping in engineered materials, dynamic anisotropy, inductive current probe, understanding of inductive effects in high-current superconductor testing, and understanding of coated conductor strain effects. Many of these measurements can be done in situ, which enables process monitoring and control. This will be very valuable in factories of the future.

Much division work involves close collaboration with other government partners. Areas of interest to other government agencies include the high-speed nanoscale recording system for forensic analysis of tapes, spintronics as a promising new technology, arrays of magnetic recording sensors for detection of vehicles, and molecular manipulation as part of the SM3 competence project.

The division has been effective in disseminating the results of its research. It has trained many first-rate postdoctoral research associates who have subsequently been hired by industry and have thus brought new expertise and knowledge to bear in a broader context. The division has also collaborated with universities, government laboratories (including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Fermilab, and Los Alamos, Argonne, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories), government agencies (e.g., the FBI, DOE, DOD, and DARPA), and industry partners (including Storage Tek, NVE, Motorola, Veeco, Hutchinson, Energen, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, TPL, 3M, American Superconductor, IGC SuperPower, Oxford Superconductor, Supercon, ABB, Pirelli, Rockwell, Detroit Edison, and Southwire).

The division has been an active participant in the National Storage Industry Consortium (NSIC) Extremely High Density Recording project, which has brought together the key players in magnetic storage from both industry and academia to advance the precompetitive art in recording. The division hosted the NSIC tape road map workshop in 2001 and worked with the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA) on standards. Division staff members regularly chair conference sessions at Intermag, the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference, and the Applied Superconductivity Conference, and serve on conference committees.

Division staff members have published numerous technical articles in quality refereed journals this year, with sizable impact on the technical community. The papers given at the Magnetic Recording Conference and the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference were of particular note. As the IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecturer for 2001, one division researcher gave 25 lectures around the world on magnetodynamics.

The division participates in numerous standards-setting activities. In 2001, division staff members sat on committees for ASTM, IEEE, the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The division has solicited feedback on its programs through its interactions with IDEMA during the round-robin standards project, the NSIC EHDR program on high-speed switching dynamics, and work with IEC TC90 and the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and standards committee in superconductivity.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Magnetic Technology Division are shown in Table 2.7. As of January 2002, staffing for the division included 13 full-time permanent positions, of which 11 were for technical professionals. There were also 7 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and temporary or part-time workers.

Increasing division staffing by one full-time position a year for 3 years would allow the division to undertake new work in spin imaging, spin imaging standards, and standards based on quantum mechanics. The panel believes that such work will be important to future industrial developments.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

TABLE 2.7 Sources of Funding for the Magnetic Technology Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1999 to FY 2002

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year 1999a (actual)

Fiscal Year 2000 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2001 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2002 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

NA

1.6

2.9

2.9

Competence

NA

0.5

0.0

0.1

ATP

NA

0.1

0.1

0.1

OA/NFG/CRADA

NA

0.7

0.9

1.3

Other Reimbursable

NA

0.1

0.1

0.0

Total

NA

2.9

4.0

4.4

Full-time permanent staff (total)b

NA

NA

11

13

NOTES: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 2.1. NA = not applicable.

a Data are not available for years prior to FY 2000, as the Magnetic Technology Division was formed in September 2000 in a reorganization in which several projects were moved from the Electromagnetic Technology Division to this new division.

b The number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

The panel recommends that further effort be made to consolidate the division’s laboratory space, which is now spread out over five buildings. Some of the space is borrowed from other groups and may have to be vacated. Colocating would greatly enhance collaboration and interaction. The renovation of one laboratory that has gotten under way is applauded by the panel. All of the division’s laboratories require upgrading.

Some new equipment is being purchased this year, and the division is making an effort to accelerate the repayment of the capital equipment fund for the existing equipment. Nevertheless, there is room for significant upgrading of the division’s equipment. In particular, a new deposition system for thin films and an upgrade of the electron-beam facility are encouraged. The present E-beam instrument is an older, modified SEM that has neither the resolution nor the overlay capability of a modern E-beam writer. Improving this capability would allow the division to make more complex structures with smaller dimensions. New equipment would also be easier to use and have higher throughput and better yields than the current equipment. The thin-films project is using home-built equipment, which consumes time that would be better spent doing research. In addition, commercial equipment would produce films more comparable with industry standards at higher throughput. The right equipment would enable the division to put films on wafers that industry uses, and thus results of NIST research could be immediately tested on industry lines and with industry test structures and devices.

The division’s two project leaders in superconductors are in the later stage of their careers. A succession plan is needed to avoid loss of expertise and to permit a smooth transition when they leave NIST.

Office of Law Enforcement Standards

The mission of the Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) is to “serve as the principal agent for standards development for the criminal justice and public safety communities.” OLES helps law

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

enforcement, corrections, and criminal justice agencies ensure that the equipment they purchase and the technologies they use are safe, dependable, and effective. While it is part of EEEL, OLES is a matrix management organization that works with all of NIST.

OLES’s primary customers are the criminal justice and public safety communities. In the criminal justice area, OLES supports law enforcement, courts, corrections, and forensic science activities. OLES focuses on the development of performance standards and conducts research on protective clothing, communications systems, emergency equipment, investigative aids, protective and enforcement equipment, security systems, weapons and ammunition, and the analytical techniques used by the forensic science community. In the area of public safety, OLES supports fire services, hazardous material units, emergency medical services, and the first-responder community. Of key importance is detecting threatening individuals and their weapons. To help do so, OLES has the goal of developing a database of faces to support the development and testing of automated facial recognition systems. The office is also working to develop a monolithic microbolometer array for remote detection of concealed weapons on human beings. In addition, work is under way to develop performance standards for chemical and biological protection, detection, and decontamination equipment for first responders.

The panel was impressed with the scope of OLES’s work and its pertinence to the new national focus on homeland security. The current work is divided into six programmatic areas: Weapons and Protective Systems; Detection, Inspection, and Enforcement Technologies; Chemical Systems and Materials; Forensic Sciences; Public Safety Communication Standards; and Critical Incident Technologies. These areas and the projects they encompass are appropriate for OLES and consistent with its mission and that of NIST.

Critical Incident Technologies was established as a separate program area in 2001 in response to the attacks of September 11. The program inherited ongoing work that was relevant to terrorist attacks, such as developing standards for chemical and biological protection equipment for first responders. A first suite of standards, for respiratory gear, was issued in January 2002; this standard was based on 2 years of careful groundwork by OLES. The Critical Incident Technologies program also includes new initiatives, including improving airline cockpit physical security and developing testing standards for frangible ammunition (ammunition that might be used by security agents defending a plane against hijackers—it shatters when it hits a hard structural surface rather than penetrating the surface, thus posing less danger to the plane and passengers). The results of these efforts could be extremely valuable to the nation for deterring or responding to further terrorist attacks. In fact, opportunities to contribute to the nation’s homeland security activities exist in all OLES programs.

The breadth of OLES activities means that it is relevant, in fact critical, to the strategic goals of many organizations. As mentioned in last year’s report, OLES has already been incorporated into the strategic plan of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). This year, OLES is featured in the strategic plan of the Interagency Board for Equipment Standardization and Interoperability Working Group, where OLES’s role is to administer and promulgate equipment standards suites and to publish, administer, and maintain a set of first-responder equipment guides, which would include test data. OLES also figures in the strategic plan of EEEL and will certainly be a key element of the NIST-level Strategic Focus Area on homeland security. The panel was pleased to see continued strengthening of relationships between the OLES staff and the rest of the NIST staff on the Gaithersburg campus as well as the development of interactions with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

OLES devotes significant effort to determining its customers’ needs and disseminating its results to interested parties. Staff serve on technical advisory committees; run training sessions; and attend conferences, meetings, and trade shows to determine research needs and increase awareness of OLES activities. Sponsors of ongoing projects, such as the NIJ, receive quarterly and final reports on their

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×

TABLE 2.8 Sources of Funding for the Office of Law Enforcement Standards (in millions of dollars), FY 1999 to FY 2002

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year 1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2000 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2001 (actual)

Fiscal Year 2002 (estimated)

National Institute of Justice

5.4

8.4

12.5

17.0

Other agencies

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.3

STRS

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.1a

Total

5.6

8.8

13.1

17.4

Full-time permanent staff (total)b

9

9

9

10

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 2.1.

aThe internal NIST funding (STRS) for FY 2002 is a contribution from EEEL in support of the construction of OLES’s new ballistics range on the NIST campus.

bThe number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

projects. However, technical reports, performance standards, test procedures, software, and other OLES products are also made available to other relevant audiences and to the public, frequently by means of the OLES Web site. OLES results are widely used at the federal, state, and local levels, and in other countries as well, and they form the basis for testing and certification programs throughout the criminal justice community. OLES reports that thousands of law enforcement and public safety workers are alive because of the improvements in equipment and procedures that this office has facilitated over the past 30 years.

Funding sources for OLES are shown in Table 2.8. OLES is supported almost entirely by outside-agency funding, primarily from NIJ, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. Other support comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the interagency Technical Support Working Group, and the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The upward trend in funding observed in past years continues and is testimony to OLES’s value to its customers. This trend will probably accelerate as OLES expands to fill an important role in the war on terrorism. The panel has noted in past years that the total dependence on external money adds significantly to the administrative burden on OLES staff. OLES must work hard to ensure continuity of funding, which can be especially difficult when other agencies receive their budgets late or if NIST is delayed in processing the paperwork. This is a NIST-wide issue.

As of January 2002, OLES had a paid staff of 10, including 8 technical professionals. Several positions were vacant, including the key role of program leader for Critical Incident Technologies. Office management is creatively seeking alternative ways (such as temporary personnel, staff on assignment from other government units, and so on) to assure that OLES has access to needed expertise. OLES is also looking for a Test Coordinator and Ballistics Range Manager. It is important that this position be filled as soon as possible. A new ballistics range is being constructed on the NIST campus, and OLES is scheduled to occupy it in the fall of 2002. The panel commends EEEL and the NIST Physical Plant unit for supporting this new facility with funding and was pleased to hear of the efforts being made to complete this work in time for a smooth transition of OLES’s ballistics program from its current temporary facility.

Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 13
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 17
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 18
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 19
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 20
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 21
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 22
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 26
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 27
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 28
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 30
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 31
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 32
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 33
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 34
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 35
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 36
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 37
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 38
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 39
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 40
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 41
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
Page 50
Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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Suggested Citation:"2 Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2002. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2002. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10510.
×
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×
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This assessment of the technical quality and relevance of the programs of the Measurement and Standards Laboratories of the National Institute of Standards and Technology is the work of the 165 members of the National Research Council's (NRC's) Board on Assessment of NIST Programs and its panels. These individuals were chosen by the NRC for their technical expertise, their practical experience in running research programs, and their knowledge of industry's needs in basic measurements and standards.

This assessment addresses the following:

  • The technical merit of the laboratory programs relative to the state of the art worldwide;
  • The effectiveness with which the laboratory programs are carried out and the results disseminated to their customers;
  • The relevance of the laboratory programs to the needs of their customers; and
  • The ability of the laboratories' facilities, equipment, and human resources to enable the laboratories to fulfill their mission and meet their customers' needs.
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