Project title: Support for the European project "Heterogeneous material and technological platform for a new domain of power nanoelectronics"
Acronim: NANOMAT
Tip proeict: PNCDI IV - Program 5.8 - Cooperare Europeană și Internațională/Orizont Europe/Premiere institutii
Contract no. 14 PHE ⁄ 2023
Project Duration: 01/11/2023 - 30/11/2025
Project Budget: 124.998 lei
Contractor: National Institute of Research and Development in Microtechnologies – IMT Bucharest (www.imt.ro)
Contracting Authority: Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding – UEFISCDI (www.uefiscdi.gov.ro)

Project director: Dr. Alexandru MULLER (alexandru.muller@imt.ro)

The NANOMAT project - "Heterogeneous materials and technological platform dedicated to the new field of power nanoelectronics" aims to contribute to the development of the field of microelectronics and flexible microwave nanoelectronics, through an innovative technological platform, based on heterogeneous materials and including monolithic integrated circuits with microwave (MMIC), based on type III-Nitride wide bandgap semiconductors (WBG), radio frequency micro-electromechanical actuator devices (RF MEMS) and acoustic sensors processed on GaN/Si.  IMT will develop, within the project, GaN /Si temperature and strain sensors, based on surface acoustic waves (SAW), with an operating frequency in the GHz range IMT will participate in the characterization of microwave transistors from power amplifiers (HPA) by developing a "load-pull" measurement method.
IMT is the leader of WP6: Dissemination & Communications. The support project will contribute to achieving these goals.

Key persons:
Alexandru Muller
Dan Vasilcahe
Claudia Nastase
George Boldeiu
Sergiu Iordanescu
Cristina Ciornei
Alexandra Nicoloiu
Ioana Zdru
Cristina Buiculescu
Mircea Pasteanu
Alina Cismaru

- Strengthening of the national research-development and innovation system;
- Increasing the visibility of Romania at the international level;
- Development of international partnerships for research - innovation
- Increasing the quality of project proposals with Romanian participants within the actions of the research and innovation framework program of the European Commission

Results obtained in 2025

In the last stage of the project "Support for the European project Heterogeneous materials and technological platform dedicated to the new field of power nanoelectronics - NANOMAT" the following activities were carried out:
(i) Load-pull measurement methods for characterizing microwave transistor performance;
(ii) - Popularization of the results for the general public, during the "Researchers' Night" event, edition 2025;
- Presentation of results at the international conference CAS 2025, within a workshop dedicated to IMT achievements within the NANOMAT project;
(iii) Approaching the topic of the project for doctoral thesis reports.

• A “load-pull” measurement method was presented for characterizing the performance of microwave transistors.

The analysis of the operation in the early nonlinear regime of microwave amplifiers is usually performed by applying the experimental method called in the literature “load-pull”. The application of the method consists in using broadband matching circuits, both at the input and at the output of the transistor to be characterized in the early large-signal regime. An automatic control system of both matching networks modifies the impedances seen at the measured transistor ports, operating them in the sense of obtaining a required power level of the output signal.
Since modern data transmission systems operate with broadband modulations, a simplified mathematical model has been proposed for the spectral analysis of the OFDM modulated signal from the output of a transistor amplifier in the weak nonlinear regime. The model can provide information on the signals at the output of the amplifier that no longer fit into the spectral mask imposed by the European regulations for RLAN applications in the 5 GHz band.

Communication activity:
(ii) Popularization of the results obtained by IMT within the NANOMAT project:

• During the event "Researchers' Night", 2025 edition, https://www.noapteacercetatorilor.eu/en-version , IMT-Bucharest participated with a stand where was presented the scientific activity carried out within the NANOMAT project and distributed flyers regarding the achievements of IMT within the European project;
• The technical results of IMT in the NANOMAT project were presented during the 48th edition of the International Semiconductor Conference - CAS, October 7-11, 2025, Sinaia, Romania.

(iii) Topics from IMT objectives in the European NANOMAT project were addressed in the research reports submitted in 2025 by the PhD students working in the "Microwave Circuits and Devices and Micromachined Structures" laboratory.

Results obtained in 2024

In the second stage of the project "Support for the European project Heterogeneous materials and technological platform dedicated to the new field of power nanoelectronics - NANOMAT" the following activities were carried out:
(i) Achievement of a professional set-up for the characterization of the strain SAW sensor;
(ii) Presentation of results at the international conference CAS 2024, within a workshop dedicated to IMT achievements within the NANOMAT project;
(iii) Conducting a course on the topic of NANOMAT for young researchers in IMT Bucharest;
(iv) Popularization of the results for, during the "Researchers' Night" event and by publishing an article in "Market Watch" magazine;
(v) Approaching the topic of the project for doctoral thesis reports.

• A professional set-up was made for characterization of SAW devices under a compressive deformation.

• The technical results of IMT in the NANOMAT project were presented during the 47th edition of the International Semiconductor Conference - CAS, October 9-11, 2024, Sinaia, Romania.

• The course entitled: "The use of III-Nitride materials in the realization of SAW devices and the characterization of microwave transistors" was held in IMT- Bucharest

Estimated Results

• temperature sensor characterization set-up
• strain sensor characterization set-up
• complex architecture for "load-pull" type measurements
• presentation of results at international conferences
• publication of an open access article
• course on the topic of the project for young researchers from IMT
• dissemination of results for the general public
• topics for doctoral theses