An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory: Fiscal Year 2009 (2009)

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2 Introduction ORGANIZATION OF THIS REPORT AND SELECTION OF THE PANEL This report assessing the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce) represents the integration of the collective observations of the Panel on Electronics and Electrical Engineering, its on-site discussions, and off-site study of read- ahead materials. The latter include background, overview, and contextual information, as well as technical reports and program descriptions, provided by EEEL staff at the request of the panel chair and National Research Council staff. The Panel on Electronics and Electrical Engineering assesses the EEEL biennially. Its previous assessment occurred in 2007. In this report, the panel’s findings are delineated in several chapters. Included are division-by-division assessments and project-specific evaluations (Chapter 3), EEEL responses to concerns from the previous assessment (Chapter 4), general observations of the panel (Chapter 5), future thrusts or high-impact projects (Chapter 6), conclusions (Chapter 7), and recommendations (Chapter 8). The panel membership for this assessment was carefully selected by the National Research Council to address the technical areas covered in the work pursued by the EEEL. In assembling the panel, the NRC identified areas of key expertise needed on the panel and solicited recommendations for panel candidates from a number of relevant sources, including the National Academies (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine), NRC boards and committees, and databases of experts in science, engineering, and medicine. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE LABORATORY The Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory is currently organized in four divisions—the Optoelectronics Division, the Semiconductor Electronics Division, the Quantum Electrical Metrology Division, and the Electromagnetics Division—and two additional operating offices: the Office of Law Enforcement Standards and the Office of Microelectronics Programs. The two offices were not subject to this formal assessment. Organized as follows, each of the four divisions comprises three groups, and each group focuses on several programs/projects: Optoelectronics Division —Sources, Detectors and Displays Group o Programs/Projects: Laser Radiometry High-Speed Measurements 6 

—Optoelectronics Manufacturing Group o Programs/Projects: Semiconductor Growth and Devices Optical Materials Metrology Nanostructure Fabrication and Metrology Quantum Information and Terahertz Technology —Optical Fiber and Components Group o Programs/Projects: Fiber Sources and Applications Semiconductor Electronics Division —Enabling Devices and ICs Group o Programs/Projects: Power Device and Thermal Metrology MicroNano Technology Nanobiotechnology —CMOS and Novel Devices Group o Programs/Projects: Nanoelectronic Device Metrology Macro Electronics CMOS Device and Reliability —Electronic Information Group o Programs/Projects: Infrastructure for Integrated Electronics Design and Manufacturing Knowledge Facilitation Quantum Electrical Metrology Division —Fundamental Electrical Measurements Group o Programs/Projects: Metrology of the Ohm AC-DC2 Electronic Kilogram Quantum Conductance —Applied Electrical Metrology Group o Programs/Projects: Farad and Impedance Metrology Electric Power Metrology Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Development —Quantum Devices Group o Programs/Projects: Quantum Voltage Quantum Sensors Quantum Information and Measurements Quantum Materials Quantum Fabrication Facility 7 

Electromagnetics Division —Radio-Frequency Electronics Group o Programs/Projects: Fundamental Guided Wave Metrology Advanced High-Frequency Devices Advanced Materials Metrology —Radio-Frequency Fields Group o Programs/Projects: Field Parameters and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Applications Antenna Metrology Wireless Systems —Magnetics Group o Programs/Projects: Nanomagnetics Biomagnetics Superconductivity 8