Goldwater scholar explores microchips of future

Greg Muha, an electrical engineering undergraduate in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, is studying how to apply a polarizing material to microchips to create circuits that use less energy.

Ferroelectrics have a spontaneous electric polarization that is reversible by an electric field. Muha said it holds promise for improving both data storage and computer performance. 

“They’re useful in transistors and computer processing applications,” he said. “My research has been on the device side.”

Muha had co-ops with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base just outside Dayton, Ohio.

At NASA, Muha worked on software and hardware for a ground station that captures and sends data to satellites in orbit.

“I helped write the interface for the RF hardware which is used for low-Earth orbit satellite communication in a variety of missions,” Muha said.

But these days he is most interested in microchips.

Professor Jha noted that intelligent computing and high-density data storage is a growth industry, estimated to be valued at $193 billion by 2026. These computer systems are ubiquitous in the Internet of Things, autonomous systems, wearable electronics and communications, among many others she said.

Muha’s work has been supported by the Protégé program at UC, National Science Foundation awards to Jha’s lab and the Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust along with the NSF’s Industry-University Research Cooperative Research Centers.

“When I joined Dr. Jha’s lab, I was surprised to learn how much you could do as a student — how much autonomy you could have to choose what you wanted to work on,” Muha said.

And in UC Associate Professor Tao Li’s microfabrication class, he got firsthand experience working in the Mantei Center Cleanroom, where students learn the fundamentals of fabricating microchips in tightly controlled spaces designed to prevent contaminants and dust from fouling sensitive electronics.

“Wearing the ‘bunny suit’ is a little surreal. It feels like science fiction,”  Muha said.

He was excited about being named a Goldwater scholar.

“I was just really happy and surprised,” he said. “I felt like I was on the right path. I knew I wanted a research career on the engineering side of things. And being able to come to UC and start accomplishing that dream was fulfilling for me.”

Featured image at top: The International Space Station deploys a satellite in this 2018 file photo. UC College of Engineering and Applied Science student Greg Muha worked on satellite communications during his co-op at NASA. Photo/Drew Feustel/NASA