Our current research has deep roots in several key areas. Employing primarily thin film materials processing, we benefit from the group’s extensive history in electronic materials processing and microstructure fabrication, stretching from metal/Si and silicide/Si interfaces, to chemical vapor deposition, metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures (central to advanced transistors and VLSI/ULSI circuits), and device, process, and equipment integration.

Coupled to this has been the exploitation of real-time, in-situ surface and gas phase analysis carried out during materials processing (e.g, during CVD or ALD) to elucidate surface chemical characteristics and reactions. Indeed, integration of materials process and surface analysis was regarded as a pioneering feature of the associated research landscape, leading to Rubloff’s receiving the AVS Gaede-Langmuir Prize in 2000.

Rubloff’s history includes a substantial component of manufacturing research, building on notions of process and equipment integration and also advanced process control, critical features of thin film based manufacturing.

A complementary perspective occupied the group for about 15 years as part of the Biochip Collaborative, focused on redox biology to assemble polysaccharide scaffolds and to promote and control biomolecular reactions in microfluidic systems.

More detailed descriptions of past research themes can be found here.