Friedrich-Wilhelm Award for Dr. Mingshan Liu

The Friedrich Wilhelm Prize is awarded annually to students and young scientists at RWTH Aachen University who have been selected for their outstanding achievements in master's theses, dissertations and postdoctoral theses.

In 2022, Dr. Mingshan Liu was selected as an awardee for his dissertation titled "Ge(Sn)-based vertical gate-all-around nanowire MOSFETs and inverters for low power logic". Dr. Liu completed his PhD thesis at the Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI 9 - Semiconductor Nanoelectronics) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Qing-Tai Zhao and Dr. Dan Buca. After a short stay at UCLA, USA, where he performed device simulations, Mingshan moved to PGI-9 to follow his passion for CMOS device fabrication. During his research, Mingshan succeeded for the first time in fabricating vertical GeSn gate all-around (GAA) nanowire MOSFETs, combining the high mobility of novel group IV GeSn semiconductors developed at PGI-9 with the excellent electrostatic control of the GAA nanowire design. The success of the vertical p- and n-channel GAA nanowire MOSFETs was demonstrated by the demonstration of the first GeSn-based CMOS inverter. Its results show that Si-CMOS compatible GeSn materials are very promising for low power applications beyond classical silicon.

Dr. Liu's dissertation, "Ge(Sn)-based vertical gate all-around nanowire MOSFETs and inverters for low-power logic," can be found here.