8/3/2009 Susan Kantor, ECE ILLINOIS
Alfred Cho (BSEE ’60, MSEE ’61, PhD ’68) is a 2009 recipient of the Rusnanoprize.
Written by Susan Kantor, ECE ILLINOIS
Alfred Cho (BSEE ’60, MSEE ’61, PhD ’68) is a 2009 recipient of the Rusnanoprize. Cho received this prize with Russian Professor Leonid Keldysh for their contributions to “semiconductor superstructures and technology of molecular beam epitaxy.”
The prize is from RUSNANO, the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies. The prize is given for nanotechnology discoveries and their application in industry. It was established in July, 2007 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I feel very honored,” Cho said. “On the other hand, I feel getting prizes of this kind, it’s not just myself. It’s actually all the work by my colleagues in this field that makes this prize possible. I’m just lucky I represent the field of molecular beam epitaxy, to represent the colleagues work to receive this award.”
Leaving Illinois in 1968 with his PhD, Cho had eight lucrative offers for different research institutions or laboratories. Taking a friend’s advice, Cho decided to work for AT&T Bell Laboratories--some of the best advice Cho said he has ever received. He considers Bell Labs a “world-class place to do research,” with leading scientists and engineers, and the freedom to do research.
When Cho began working at Bell Labs, electronic devices were becoming increasingly smaller. But it also became increasingly difficult to make devices with thinner layers with the existing technology.
Using what he had learned at Illinois, Cho developed a new crystal growth technology, growing atom layers by atom layers in an ultra-high vacuum system. The technology, which Cho called molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), can control device layer thickness to atomic dimensions. Layer structures could be thin, while controlled in uniformity and thickness.
Developed in 1970, MBE was the beginning of experimentally making nanostructures. Quantum structures could now be demonstrated in the classroom and in laboratories.
Not only were structures more precise, they were easily reproducible. This drove down manufacturing costs, and devices could be mass produced.
This technology is still widely used today. MBE is used for creating the lasers that read signals on a compact disc music player. A company called RF Microdevice (RFMD) in North Carolina uses MBE to produce 500 million chips of components for cell phones, including RF switches, front-end amplifiers, and power amplifiers.
“It’s really used every day,” Cho said. He added that this prize is different because it recognizes nanotechnology that is used to benefit human welfare.
After a career spent at Bell Labs, where he was vice president of the Semiconductor Research Laboratory, Cho is retired and plans to donate his prize money to current nanotechnology researchers.
“The prize given to me is an honor,” he said, “but I think (the prize) will also encourage the next generation to do this kind of work.”