Dylan Richmond, a fourth-year doctoral student in the Materials Science and Engineering Program, conducts research focused on identifying innovative materials and processes to produce reliable, low-cost, low-waste flexible electronic devices. His research group prints and builds circuits onto adaptable plastic materials.

“My favorite part of this work is definitely printing the materials and making something go from a design to an actual circuit and then building upon that and making the whole device,” Richmond says.

He has worked with Binghamton’s Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing, or CAMM lab, for two and a half years. The laboratory is directed by Mark Poliks, a SUNY distinguished professor of systems science and industrial engineering. Richmond works alongside Poliks on several projects.

“Dylan is a highly motivated individual who is always willing to accept new and challenging responsibilities,” Poliks says. “It has been my privilege to see him develop into an independent professional scientist.”

The CAMM produces devices that are made to withstand high temperatures and large influxes of energy. They can flex onto virtually any curved surface seamlessly, all while adopting the flexibility of a Band-Aid.

In traditional electronics manufacturing, copper or another conductive metal coats the entire plate and excess materials are etched away to leave behind the circuit. However, the CAMM focuses on printing through additive manufacturing. This process reduces waste and is a cost-effective alternative.

“In additive manufacturing, you only print what you need,” Richmond says. “So you print just the design of the circuit.”

While growing up in Owego, Richmond favored the complex nature of math and science over all other elementary subjects. His initial curiosity and appreciation ultimately paved the way for his future as an engineer.

During his final year at SUNY Oswego, where he received his bachelor’s in physics, Richmond had an opportunity to conduct research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on perovskite solar cells. Perovskite is a low-cost, high-energy material that can be used to power electronic devices.

Flexible hybrid electronics combine printed electronic circuits and the flexibility of plastic materials with the efficiency of thinned semiconductor devices to produce a new form of electronics.

“Flexible electronics should be able to adapt to locations and environments where they are needed. The key word here is adapting,” Richmond says. “You want them to not be a nuisance to you. You want to barely notice that they’re on you. So the challenge is making them so thin, so light-weight, so that you barely notice that you’re wearing them and they’re not getting in the way of your daily activities.”

Printed electronics are still novel and fundamental work still needs to be done. As the field of materials science gains more traction, Richmond says that he is less interested in competition and more interested in sharing his knowledge with like-minded peers in the engineering community.

“There’s a lot of people that are interested in this right now, and I just want to contribute to it,” he says.

The influence of the Green Revolution has motivated Richmond to hope for a future in the renewable energy sector. He aspires to combine his knowledge and experience in materials science with his passion for printing and green energy, to create his own renewable energy company in the future.

“Many of our projects involve collaboration with colleagues at major corporations and other universities,” Poliks says. “Dylan has had the opportunity to develop the skills needed to work in a complex team environment. As a result he is now well prepared to work in a highly competitive research and development laboratory.”

The Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging center (S3IP) and its interdisciplinary teams of engineers and scientists recently moved into a new $30 million glass, metal and stone building. The facility joins the Engineering and Science Building and Biotechnology Building at the Innovative Technologies Complex on Murray Hill Road in Vestal. A fourth building, the Smart Energy Research and Development Facility, is under construction and expected to open in 2017.

President Harvey G. Stenger joined this week with Sen. Thomas W. Libous, Assemblywoman Donna A. Lupardo, University faculty and staff, industry partners, community leaders and members of the public to celebrate the opening of the 114,000-square-foot Center of Excellence building.

S3IP, which was designated a Center of Excellence in 2006, connects industry and academia. Key research thrusts include electronics packaging, energy-smart electronic systems, flexible electronics and energy harvesting and storage.

“We have provided infrastructure that will catalyze the advancements already being made by our researchers in the areas of microelectronics, data center energy optimization, battery storage, autonomous solar power, as well as advanced materials and sensors,” Stenger said. “Collaboration is what brought us to this point in our research efforts. Collaboration and the right environment, this building, will lead to path-breaking technologies in the future.”

Stenger said the project, which generated nearly $16 million in economic impact and supported more than 180 jobs, would not have been possible without the support of the senator and assemblywoman.

“Binghamton University is partnering with various industries, academic institutions and government to achieve something very important with the Center of Excellence — an investment in our community and economy,” Libous said. “We set out to create opportunities for careers locally, and we’ll see those opportunities continue to grow in this new facility.”

Lupardo noted that the opening of the Center of Excellence marks another milestone in the development of Binghamton as a world-class research institution. “This new state-of-the-art facility strengthens the collaborative work being done between government, industry and academia at Binghamton University,” she said. “We are already seeing a positive impact on the local economy, as interdisciplinary teams develop products that will shape the future.”

The Center of Excellence was designed by the University’s in-house architect, William Hall. It was built to LEED standards, and features energy-efficient windows and skylights as well as a water retention system and the latest technology for heat recovery and humidity control.

“Today gives us an opportunity to reflect on the work we’ve done so far, including the more than $1 billion in economic impact on New York state and the nearly 2,000 jobs the center has helped to create or retain since 1996,” said Bahgat Sammakia, vice president for research and S3IP director. “Tomorrow, we’ll get back to doing what we do best: making electronics that are smaller, lighter, smarter, greener and faster than the ones you have now.”

Sammakia, a distinguished professor of mechanical engineering, is the founding director of the Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging Center, a New York State Center of Excellence. Editor of the ASME Journal of Electronic Packaging, he holds 19 U.S. patents and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed technical papers. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and holds a joint appointment in Binghamton’s department of systems science and industrial engineering.

“I am both delighted and humbled to receive this honor from the IEEE,” Sammakia said. “My research has always been motivated by my desire to have an impact on society, to create technology that really makes people’s lives better. This recognition is a sign that I am indeed contributing vital new knowledge to my field.

“It’s also an important validation of the investments Binghamton University has made in small-scale systems research,” he added. “I wouldn’t be able to do the work that I do now without the students, colleagues and facilities that we have here at Binghamton.”

Sammakia, a former IBM senior technical staff member, joined Binghamton’s faculty in 1998. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Alexandria in Egypt and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University at Buffalo.

The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. The IEEE, which has 400,000 members in 160 countries, publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields. It has developed more than 900 active industry standards.

Fellow is the highest grade of membership conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors and is recognized by the technical community as an important career achievement.

Zhou’s work focuses on numerical simulations of electronic packaging and thermal management. She aims to develop a numerical, multiphysics approach to mitigate fluid and thermal issues for microprocessors. Zhou also studies emerging energy-conversion devices.

High-density electronic devices have caused a sharp increase in heat-removal requirements, she notes, and traditional cooling methods can’t meet this need. The search for alternative methods leads in turn to challenges in electronics packaging and microprocessor cooling. “My work is focused on liquid-cooled microchannel heat sinks, which offer a new way to keep chips in high-performance computers from overheating,” says Zhou, who has validated her model with prior experimental data. “I hope I can provide some guidelines for real practice.”

Another aspect of her work centers on thermoelectric generators, which convert thermal energy into electric power. The current efficiency of such generators is around 5 percent. Zhou thinks her work could increase that to 7 or 8 percent.

“It has lots of applications, like in spacecraft, where energy from the natural decay of plutonium could generate power,” she says. “It also could change vehicles, where the temperature difference between exhaust and coolant could be used to turn waste heat energy into electric power.”

Zhou earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University in China before deciding to pursue further graduate work in the United States. She expects to defend her dissertation in mechanical engineering this year and hopes to go to work in U.S. industry after graduation.

Bahgat Sammakia, vice president for research at Binghamton and director of the Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging Center, has mentored Zhou. “When I give her a research assignment,” he says, “she surprises me with her ideas and things she has discovered on her own. She has solved some really difficult problems related to electrical and mechanical engineering and fluid dynamics. She’s absolutely brilliant.”

Binghamton University’s Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging (S3IP) conducts research to advance this vital technology. “S3IP is about developing products and applications that improve the way people live their lives,” Director Bahgat Sammakia says. “It’s that simple. That’s our goal.”

Small-scale systems are electronic systems with features built at the microscale or even smaller. “These are difficult to construct, but also extremely useful,” says Sammakia, a former IBM engineer who is also vice president for research at Binghamton. “When you can build electronic systems at that scale, you can put much more function in a much smaller volume and weight. So your phone now can do what a supercomputer could do three decades ago. That’s where scale becomes really important, when you can have more function in a smaller space at lower power.

“We decided to focus on small-scale systems because that’s where the future is.”

S3IP, established 10 years ago, builds on Binghamton’s Integrated Electronics Engineering Center (IEEC), founded in 1991. The IEEC focuses on electronics packaging. Since then, S3IP has added to its portfolio of research interests. It now boasts centers that address:

• Flexible electronics: The Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM)
• Solar energy: The Center for Autonomous Solar Power (CASP)
• “Green” data centers: The Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2)

It also has three unique, multiuser laboratories that support this work:

• The Analytical and Diagnostics Laboratory (ADL), which offers state-of-the-art instrumentation for electron microscopy, thermal analysis, X-ray analysis, surface and interface analysis and more
• The Nanofabrication Laboratory (NLAB), which focuses on nano-scale research
• The Reliability and Failure Analysis Lab, a facility focused on evaluating reliability of electronic packaging and determination of failure modes

An industry-driven quest for answers

The Integrated Electronics Engineering Center (IEEC) is where it all began, and electronics packaging remains at the core of S3IP’s activities. Those activities are driven by member companies, which provide faculty researchers an opportunity to tackle real-world problems and support their work financially. In turn, these companies obtain access to cutting-edge research and facilities.

From 1996 through 2012, the IEEC’s work led to the creation of 780 jobs as well as the retention of 1,000 positions at New York state companies. The center has had an economic impact of more than $971 million on the state. “The IEEC was our origin, and it remains our key economic engine,” says Daryl Santos, IEEC director.

William Infantolino, associate director of the IEEC, says reliability testing is one of the center’s specialties. It’s an area of growing concern to electronics manufacturers, whose customers now expect, for example, that their cell phones will still work if they’re dropped.

The IEEC can expose parts and devices to accelerated test conditions to see how they perform over time when exposed to elevated temperatures or other stressors. “We can fit a lifetime of on/off cycles into three months,” Infantolino explains. “It gives us an approximation of how a part will perform over time in actual use.”

Some of the most exciting IEEC projects now focus on 3D integration of silicon electronic devices. “That has always been a dream,” Sammakia says, “and now it is becoming real.”

Essentially, in an effort to make devices smaller and help them run faster, companies now are stacking microchips vertically, Infantolino says. Sematech, a consortium of semiconductor companies, is working in this area and has come to the IEEC for assistance with this research. Binghamton experts are conducting mechanical and thermal modeling as well as reliability assessments related to these designs.

“There’s high potential in 3D packaging,” Infantolino says. “It comes down to cost for performance. If the performance and size advantages can justify the cost of the more complex structure, there’ll be a major migration. It’s going to take some time to develop the processes, equipment and supply chain. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

Like the IEEC, the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM) takes its cue from industry. In fact, the center is based at Endicott Interconnect Technologies, about a 15-minute drive from the University.

In general, the CAMM looks for ways to translate aspects of traditional electronics manufacturing into flexible, roll-to-roll processes. Its 10,000-square-foot facility boasts a panel line for process and product development and an integrated roll-to-roll research line for product development. Much of the equipment found there is available nowhere else in the country.

Roll-to-roll processing is traditionally the domain of paper: Think of the enormous rolls of newsprint on which your local newspaper is printed. The CAMM has helped to expand that domain to include lightweight, thin plastic and, most recently, flexible glass. Corning Inc. collaborated with the CAMM to evaluate its spooled flexible Willow Glass. While glass is the preferred substrate for many kinds of electronics, scientists were unsure about the design rules for equipment that would handle and process flexible glass.

Cynthia Giroux, division vice president and research director for optics and surface technologies at Corning, participates on the CAMM’s executive advisory board and notes the company’s relationship with the CAMM has led to numerous conference presentations and journal articles. “Cost-efficient manufacturing is a necessary step in achieving the goal of high-quality and interconnected electronics that are integrated into everyday objects such as tabletops, walls, appliances and vehicles,” she says. “We look forward to further collaborations with Binghamton University’s S3IP centers to identify flexible electronic device designs and fabrication methods for these emerging applications.”

“That’s the future of the CAMM: to help companies commercialize products,” Sammakia says.

The first product commercialized at the CAMM was a catheter system, and Sammakia envisions the center playing a role in future healthcare research. “S3IP’s role in healthcare research will be tied to electronics,” he says.

Mark Poliks, CAMM technical director and R&D director for Endicott Interconnect, agrees. “There is a huge opportunity for advanced diagnostic and therapeutic medical electronics for use both in and out of the body: high-definition ultrasound probes, wearable MRI coils, neural stimulation, retinal implants and more,” Poliks says. “Even relatively simple monitoring devices such as heart monitors, oxygen sensors or glucose monitors could be reduced to a comfortable-to-wear Band-Aid patch complete with a wireless interface.”

Looking to the future

In addition to healthcare, smart energy is a key focus of research at Binghamton. That emphasis is evident in the work done by the Center for Autonomous Solar Power (CASP) and the Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2).

At CASP, scientists are working to improve thin-film solar cells, build next-generation supercapacitors, conduct reliability studies and develop thermoelectric cells that expand on the fraction of the sun’s energy captured by most solar technology.

Laboratories around the world are engaged in a game of one-upmanship to build ever more efficient solar cells, says Charles R. Westgate, CASP director. Binghamton researchers have entered this race, focusing on cells made with copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS), which is less costly than the materials used in most cells now on the market. “Among universities, we’re now No. 1,” he says.

The greatest barrier to more widespread use of solar power in the United States is cost, Westgate notes. The development of solar cells from materials that are easier to extract from the earth should address cost concerns and result in processes that are less harmful to the environment.

“We’re meeting only about 1 or 2 percent of our energy needs from solar energy,” he says. “A reasonable goal is to increase that to about 10 percent in the next decade and about 20 percent in the long term.”

ES2, meanwhile, unites researchers from computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and other disciplines in pursuit of “green” data centers. The goal is to reduce energy consumption without sacrificing computing power.

“The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts,” says Kanad Ghose, ES2 site director and chair of the Department of Computer Science at Binghamton. “The center takes a holistic approach when it considers computing, thermal and other challenges.”

ES2 is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center with nearly two dozen industry partners, including IBM, Microsoft and Facebook. The center will soon open a data center that’s also a “living laboratory” where new products and ideas can be tested. “Companies can come in, develop best-practice solutions and evaluate them,” Ghose says. “We’ll be developing standards for industry in this lab.”

ES2 researchers will help companies establish the right amount of cooling for a given number of servers, identify new ways to recover and use the waste heat from data centers, and suggest new methods of designing data centers to maximize efficiency.

“We have projects that have short-term consequences as well as projects that have significant long-term consequences,” Ghose says. “The research covers the spectrum from chip-level work to entire data centers. Our goal is to do long-term research and develop technology that can be translated into the real world.”

ES2 also offers interdisciplinary training for graduate students. The research center is quite new, but  graduates have already gone on to positions with industry giant Intel.

“The United States has to invest in computing technology to stay competitive,” he adds. “The future of the country is at stake. Already, some of the fastest computers are in China and not in the U.S.”

At Binghamton University, campus, state and federal investments are evident in a new facility for S3IP. The Center of Excellence will move this year into a $30 million, 114,000-square-foot space that will allow it to expand and consolidate its operations. ES2 will use the facility itself as a lab for “smart buildings,” testing ways to reduce energy consumption through smart lighting, natural cooling and other “green”  innovations.

The building will connect other facilities at Binghamton’s Innovative Technologies Complex focused on biotechnology and engineering as well as a future R&D facility to be devoted to smart energy.

“The S3IP building is going to be the virtual bridge between engineering and science,” Sammakia says. “The IEEC has always done that. Now we will have this building and these labs, and we expect that faculty from chemistry and biology, physics and math will come and partner with engineering.”

A native of sun-drenched southern India, where daily high temperatures often exceed 100 degrees, discovers that one of the best places to pursue his interest in solar energy is an upstate New York community noted for its cloud cover.

“Since childhood, I have been interested in energy sources that are nonpolluting and are abundant,” says Siva P. Adusumilli, who received his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. “I did some homework, and I found out about Binghamton University’s Center for Autonomous Solar Power.”

Now Adusumilli is a doctoral student at Binghamton while working as a graduate research associate at the center known as CASP. His focus is on earth-abundant solar materials and nanomaterials.

Some substances, such as silicon, are well-suited for use in solar cells but are costly to process and, therefore, drive up the price of the end product. That limits the cells’ potential for wide usage even though the energy source — the sun — is free, Adusumilli says. He also points out the illogic of having to use great quantities of energy to synthesize materials to be used in products designed to produce or save energy. Research in earth-abundant materials, which are relatively much cheaper, is a growing field.

Adusumilli’s work has been in the synthesis of two such substances for use in thin-film solar cells: iron pyrite (aka “fool’s gold”) and zinc phosphide. Charles R. Westgate, director of CASP, says Adusumilli has won numerous student poster contests and drawn attention from colleagues at prestigious universities for his findings. “He has been successful in achieving high-quality films and nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes and is now optimizing their growth for solar cells,” Westgate says.

Unless the price of raw materials drops, solar energy will not be an appealing option for homeowners, Adusumilli says. “When people put in a solar roof, they think, ‘How long is the payback?’ and, if it’s 20 years …” he says, trailing off with a knowing shrug.

Much of CASP’s funding comes from government agencies, but the center “tries to have communication with industry. Companies like IBM and GE — they know what is needed,” says Adusumilli, who sees himself as a research scientist with a U.S. company after graduation. “Since my childhood, I’ve had the image of me in a research lab coat.”

“When it comes to Binghamton’s bright, solar-powered future, bigger is not always better,” he said. “The path to a more prosperous Southern Tier economy is paved with flexible, miniature and transparent solar cells.”

Schumer and U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, who helped secure $8.5 million in federal funding for the CASP facility, were among the speakers at the opening of two laboratories at the New York State Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging (S3IP). The May 3 ceremony at the Innovative Technologies Complex also featured comments from University President Harvey Stenger, Interim Vice President for Research Bahgat Sammakia and state Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo. Guests later toured the labs.

The ceremony celebrated the opening of the Center for Autonomous Solar Power’s Solar Laboratory and the co-location of the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center’s (IEEC) Reliability and Failure Analysis Laboratory. Both laboratories are housed in the Biotechnology Building at the ITC.

CASP is a national leader in the research and development of thin film solar cells. Its new laboratory will focus on using inexpensive, non-toxic and abundant materials to develop new solar cell and energy storage technologies. The IEEC conducts research in electronics packaging and provides the results to affiliated companies. The newly relocated Reliability and Failure Analysis Laboratory provides expertise in electronics packaging.

“Binghamton has a strong research tradition that is crucial to the growth of the University and our region,” Stenger said. “These new laboratories provide us with world-class facilities and usher in an era of collaboration and partnerships that will expand the future of our region, and act as a catalyst to reinvent and enhance the technology focus of the Southern Tier.”

Stenger and Sammakia took that technology focus to Albany on April 25 when they presented the University’s NYSUNY2020 plan to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The plan includes the construction of a $70 million, state-of-the-art Smart Energy Research and Development Facility.

“This plan builds on the kinds of successes that we are here to celebrate and are a huge part of Binghamton University’s future,” Stenger said. “These successes would not be possible without the support of our federal and state partners. … It’s remarkable in such a short amount time that we are already recognized as a national leader in the (solar energy) area.”

Schumer noted the economic potential of the new laboratories.

“When we look to the future, we look to Binghamton University,” he said. “When we are looking for jobs in the Southern Tier, we often look to Binghamton University. Too often, New York institutions did research that did not create jobs. We are now focused on things that create jobs — and CASP is on top of the list.”

Research at the CASP lab “will lead to a wealth of applications,” Schumer said, referring to solar-powered sensor networks, systems that allow the charging of laptops and cell phones and cooling systems for soldiers in hot climates.

“Imagine if every window at One World Trade Center was a solar-powered cell,” Schumer said. “That’s what the research could create. … The possibilities are endless, but one thing is for sure: CASP will be a springboard for innovative solar energy. It has the same kind of potential that IBM had decades ago in Endicott.”

An integral part of the S3IP, the labs will bring together government, academia and industry partners to collaborate in areas such as electronics, healthcare and energy — all of which have national and global impact.

Hinchey said the CASP marks a step forward for renewable energy.

“The research that will be done within these walls has the potential to reshape our energy future,” he said. “It is so important that our government makes substantial investment in laboratories like this. It is an unfortunate reality, however, that many in Washington have sought to eliminate investments in renewable energy research as well as the earmark process that enabled this funding to be allocated. I oppose that shortsighted approach and instead place my faith in the talented minds here at Binghamton University.”

Hinchey, who is retiring from Congress at the end of his term this year, said he is “honored” to have helped Binghamton University grow over the last two decades.

“This is a marvelous place that is getting stronger, bigger and more effective seemingly every day,” Hinchey said.

Lupardo called the opening celebration “good news” and noted how the ITC and its facilities are providing K-12 students and their teachers with another outlet to learn about science.

“There is so much good news coming out of Binghamton University, we can hardly keep up with it,” she said. “You see the construction going on. The community in general is starting to catch on that this is a place that is not only generating new ideas, but new jobs.”

Schumer brought up the name of Binghamton legend and “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling, who challenged Americans to “imagine something beyond the mundane.”

“The scientists, engineers, technicians, students, workers and administrators at Binghamton University and the Center for Autonomous Solar Power have accepted that challenge,” he said. “Into that middle ground, between light and shadow — into ‘the dimension of the imagination’ that Serling always talked about ― they will pour the full brightness of their intellect, invention and innovation. The citizens of Binghamton and far beyond will be better for it.”

Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center in Energy-Efficient Electronic Systems’ primary support will come from the center members with whom researchers will work on projects of mutual interest. Fifteen companies representing the entire supply chain for data centers — from hardware manufacturing and software development to end-users — have signed up as members. The list includes industry leaders such as Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Commscope, Bloomberg, General Electric, Corning Inc., Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Emerson Network Power and Emerson Delaware Valley Liebert, Verizon, Comcast and Steel Orca.

“The center will address energy efficiencies in a way that has not been tackled before,” said Bahgat Sammakia, interim vice president for research at Binghamton University and E3S director. “By looking at energy efficiency problems holistically — that is, from all angles and across many disciplines — the center will provide the kind of answers that leaders in the electronics industry are looking for. Each of the center’s academic partners has expertise in a particular area and by tapping into these individual strengths, we will collectively find the answers to some of the industry’s most challenging practical problems.”

Binghamton University will be the focal point for this highly collaborative effort; partners Villanova University and the University of Texas at Arlington will have support centers on their campuses as well.

“The Villanova College of Engineering and the Villanova research team are thrilled to be part of the NSF I/UCRC E3S Center. The center gives us an unprecedented opportunity to marry our deep expertise in thermal management of electronic systems with our rapidly emerging expertise in energy sustainability as we seek innovative solutions to energy efficiency in data center design and operation,” said Alfonso Ortega, associate dean for Graduate Studies and Research, and the James R. Birle Professor of Energy Technology at the Villanova College of Engineering.

Focusing initially on data centers, which are becoming one of the nation’s biggest energy-guzzlers, the new center will seek ways to allow electronic systems to monitor and regulate the amount of energy they use. As it stands, the energy spent on running data centers in the United States is about 2.5 percent of the total national energy expenditure, which is enough to power a couple of medium-sized cities for most of the year.

As the number of data centers increases due to growing demand for online services for everything from medical records to shopping, the need for greater energy efficiencies is becoming even more apparent. Lessons learned from reducing energy consumption in data centers will not only save millions of dollars, but will offer solutions to practical energy consumption problems in all areas of the electronics industry — from cell phones and tablets to gaming consoles and e-commerce.

The University of Texas at Arlington has been focusing on data center cooling for a number of years, said Dereje Agonafer, UT Arlington mechanical and aerospace engineering professor and site director for the center.

“The center allows us to significantly expand our mission in energy-efficient systems by focusing on a broad range of multi-disciplinary and collaborative research topics, including air side economizers, sustainability, effects of airborne contaminations on data center equipment, and cooling technologies for future high density interconnect devices,” Agonafer said. “Working with our consortium members gives us leverage into implementing our research activities in products.”

In addition to providing solutions to some of today’s most challenging energy-efficiency problems, the center is looking to the future by providing industry-relevant training opportunities.

“The I/UCRC E3S center is committed to strengthening the United States’ competitiveness in the electronics industry,” said Kanad Ghose, professor and chair of the Computer Science Department at Binghamton and E3S site director. “By attracting talented and motivated students to work with outstanding researchers and industry leaders, we can train the next generation to be the kind of broad-based scientists and engineers that the industry is going to need in the future.”

The center will convene its first official meeting in December 2011 to review an initial lineup of research projects that industry center members have identified as promising. Projects under review include activities associated with energy-efficient scheduling of workload, servers and cooling systems, the design of micro-scale servers, analyzing the effects of airflow and dynamics, and compact models activities. Work on these projects will begin as soon as they have been matched with teams of I/UCRC E3S researchers.

“The NSF I/UCRC Center for Energy Efficient Systems will play a key role in establishing deep partnerships between industry and academia,” said Kushagra Vaid, general manager of datacenter hardware engineering at Microsoft. “Our goal is to jointly deliver breakthrough concepts for next generation cloud infrastructure. Microsoft is proud to be on the advisory board for this research center.”

Roger Schmidt, IBM Fellow and chief engineer for data center energy efficiency at IBM Corp., is equally supportive of the new center.

“This I/UCRC represents a true partnership between industry and academia,” Schmidt said. “It deals with a critical issue for industry, namely the escalating energy budget in data centers. This partnership will allow us to conduct research that is both timely and transformative in close partnership with academia.”

The symposium will bring together leading researchers from academia, national labs and industry to focus on electronics packaging, a field that encompasses all components of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices, except for the integrated circuit or chip. Topics will include packaging trends, thermal management, 3-D packaging, sensors, electronics packaging for harsh environments, miniaturization and flexible/printed electronics.

The symposium will include a student poster session, a technology showcase spotlighting local industry, a networking reception and a dinner speaker.

William Fierle, president of Emerson Network Power Surge Protection Inc., was recognized as Technology Leader of the Year for his efforts in shaping the technology community through leadership in energy management.

J. Micheal Harris, director of Integration Technology at Corning Inc., was recognized as Technology Innovation Mentor of the Year for his contributions to providing industrial experiences for developing scientists and engineers.

Gay Canough, president of ETM Solar Works, was recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year for her contributions to the development of solar technologies in the Southern Tier.

Merwyn Jones, IBM Fellow and director of the Linux Technology Center at Binghamton University, was recognized as Educator of the Year for his efforts in educating the next generation of computer scientists.

Awards were announced Nov. 17 during the S3IP annual dinner, which featured remarks by Edward Reinfurt, executive director of the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR). Gary Kunis, retired chief science officer for Cisco Systems, provided keynote remarks. S3IP Associate Director Mary Beth Curtin and David Gdovin, president of Diamond Visionics and STOC vice president, presented the technology innovation awards.

The new $30 million, 114,000-square-foot Center of Excellence building will provide space for expansion and consolidation of S³IP and its interdisciplinary, inter-institutional teams of scientists and engineers. The facility will help bridge critical scientific, technology, commercialization and education gaps, and support partnerships in energy-efficient electronic systems, systems integration and packaging, flexible electronics, autonomous solar power, advanced materials and sensors and health care/life sciences.

“This building will solidify Binghamton University’s position as a world leader in small scale systems packaging,” Interim President C. Peter Magrath said. “This facility will connect people and ideas, accelerate discovery in this growing field, and develop further our commitment to partnerships with industry. The research, education and outreach of those who will be housed in this building will make a significant contribution to this region and to New York State.”

Funding for the new building was obtained through the efforts of State Sen. Thomas W. Libous, R-Binghamton, and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell. The new building will provide an estimated $15.9 million annual economic impact and support more than 180 jobs per year in the region during its construction.

New York’s Southern Tier has long been a hub for microelectronics research. S³IP builds on this legacy through high-impact research that supports the translation of economically significant microelectronic innovations to U.S. industry. S³IP is a proven innovation leader, generating more than $700 million in economic impact through partnerships with national and international industries on collaborative, precompetitive research.

“Research is a key driver for innovation and technology development,” Interim Vice President for Research Bahgat Sammakia said. “Our research at the Center of Excellence has always been conducted in strong partnership with industry, and we are fully committed to research that has a broad and transformational impact on the community. This building will create spaces and infrastructure that bring together our faculty, scientists and students with engineers and scientists from industry to work on key technical advancements.”

The two-story glass, metal and stone building will feature versatile, open laboratory space, a symposium hall and offices that support the University’s ongoing and expanding industry partnerships.

Featuring in-house design, planning and construction management, this building will meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, incorporating energy-efficient windows and skylights for maximum use of daylight, green roof applications and the latest technology for heat recovery and humidity control.

To see a video flyover of the architect’s plans for the building, click here.

The event, organized by the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing, brings together researchers from academia, national labs and industry for discussions of recent advances in the fields of flexible electronics, device and conductor printing and emerging electronic materials. Participants also discuss research and development needs in the field.

John Pellegrino, director of the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, gave the symposium’s keynote address. Speakers also included scientists from Penn State, 3M, Corning, Eastman Kodak, GE, HP, PARC and Xerox.

The symposium featured a student poster session as well as tours of CAMM’s roll-to-roll manufacturing research center at Endicott Interconnect Technologies.

CAMM’s latest addition, the CHA Industries Web Coater, was featured during tours of the facility. The $6 million machine, built for the FlexTech Alliance with funding from the Army Research Laboratory, was installed at the CAMM earlier this year.

CAMM Director Peter Borgesen said the web coater allows the center to engage in high-volume manufacturing of thin-film transistors on flexible surfaces. The tool is unique in the country at the moment, and may even be the only one of its kind in the world.

“We can do vacuum processing on a scale that’s not normally done in manufacturing yet, and we can do it with an accuracy that’s not generally possible yet,” Borgesen said. “It enables you to do something that normally you could only do in a physics lab.”

Sammakia was selected to receive the 2010 ITherm Achievement Award in honor of his contributions to electronics, thermal and thermomechanical research, as well as his service to the electronics thermal management community.

Sammakia, director of the Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging Center (S³IP), a New York State Center of Excellence, also serves as the University’s executive director for economic development. A professor of mechanical engineering, Sammakia spearheads an effort that promises to revolutionize the electronics industry. S³IP is leading the way to advances in flexible electronics as well as more environmentally friendly data centers and manufacturing processes. The center, which includes more than 45 affiliated faculty and staff, has generated more than $700 million in economic impact to New York State industry since 1996.

Sammakia, a Vestal resident and longtime IBM engineer, joined Binghamton’s faculty in 1998. He holds 14 U.S. patents and has published more than 150 technical papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings.

The ITherm Achievement Award was presented June 3 during the 12th Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems in Las Vegas. The award, first given in 1996, is presented biennially. Sammakia is the eighth recipient.

“A device such as this can be used by soldiers in the field, in disaster relief and in the hospital setting for treating wounds that take months or years to heal,” Farnam said. “Limbs that may otherwise become infected and have to be removed can be saved, and lives can be saved.”

Farnam’s research is funded by a fellowship called the IGERT, or Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship. The National Science Foundation awarded $2.5 million to Binghamton University, Cornell University and Albany’s Wadsworth Center. From 2007 to 2012, Binghamton’s $500,000 portion of the award supports student research focusing on the medical applications of flexible electronics.

Mary Beth Curtin, associate director of the Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging Center (S3IP), said this the first time Binghamton has received an IGERT award. “There’s a lot of promise in flexible electronics — it’s a brand-new field,” she said. “That’s one reason why this award is so exciting for our students.”

The project at Binghamton is led by professors Bahgat Sammakia and Omowunmi Sadik, each of whom nominates graduate students to be funded by the IGERT. For the students, that means a $30,000 yearly stipend in addition to tuition coverage, an expenses-paid study-abroad experience and funding for research materials.

IGERT fellow Nian Du’s work is spurred by rising concerns over the environmental impact of silver nanoparticles — microscopic bits of metal used in a variety of medical applications as well as consumer products. Once touted as wonderful applications of modern technology, nanoparticles’ potential to enter the water supply and penetrate human tissue now worry scientists. If they do turn out to be harmful, Du plans to be ready with a substance that can detect and filter nanoparticles.

Leo Zheng, Binghamton’s newest IGERT fellow, is working with Farnam on the mechanics of the smart bandage. He will design a flexible sensor that can be used to detect undesirable bacteria in places such as public water supply piping.

Although Farnam, Du and Zheng work independently on their research, they certainly aren’t working alone. Along with the IGERT fellows from Cornell and the Wadsworth Center, they take a myriad of classes, from analytical chemistry and biology to materials science and marketing. As a key aspect of the program, fellows from disciplines as diverse as chemistry, biophysics, mechanical engineering and neuroscience gather for seminars and webinars to discuss their research and exchange ideas.

James Turner, research scientist at S3IP and co-writer of the IGERT application, explained that such multidisciplinary collaborations “open up a wealth of possibilities, by bringing together multiple science and engineering approaches to solve a problem in a unique way that maybe wouldn’t otherwise be possible.”

The program’s interdisciplinary nature makes her current research more effective, Du said. “I will have a broader background than others when I graduate,” she added, “and this will give me more preparation for all kinds of jobs.”

IGERT fellows are also learning to collaborate on a global scale through international internships. As part of the IGERT, Farnam is working in Sydney, Australia, with a researcher who specializes in making coatings that prevent microbial buildup on items such as medical implants and contact lenses. “This way I can learn a lot about the biological side of my research, since I specialize in the mechanics,” he said. “In addition, I get to experience how things are done in a different educational system and by a research group in a different field than mine.”

Turner said this global view is a real advantage. “To have students with the experience to interact with people from different cultures, who may have different priorities and perspectives on the world and the role of science in that world, is extremely important,” he said, “and will be more so in the future.”

The IGERT has lead to research collaborations with several departments at Cornell, Curtin said, and this has improved overall research quality. She said that the world of science is seeing a trend toward multi-institutional and multidisciplinary collaboration. “That’s a good thing,” she added, “because it has helped Binghamton to develop partnerships across the nation, which infuse our area with new and different viewpoints.”

That’s the promise of research conducted by Binghamton colleagues Kanad Ghose, a professor of computer science, and Bahgat Sammakia, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the University’s New York State Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Packaging and Integration, or S3IP.

“The amount of energy we spend on running our data centers in the U.S. is about 2.5 percent of the total national energy expenditure,” Ghose said. “That doesn’t sound like a big number, but it’s enough to power a couple of good-sized cities for most of the year.”

The statistics are “sobering,” Ghose said. The number of data centers is growing rapidly because of increasing demand for online services for everything from medical records to shopping.

“The unfortunate fact is there’s a lot of waste in this,” Ghose said. “All data centers are ‘overprovisioned.’ They’re designed to handle the peak loads. And most of the time, they operate at 40 to 60 percent of that. When data centers run at a lower than peak load, the energy efficiency is very poor.”

There are also inherent inefficiencies, in part because most servers run on the Linux operating system, which doesn’t have good power management solutions for servers.

That’s just the bad news from the information technology side. Then there’s the cooling.

“The cooling solutions are also overprovisioned,” Ghose said. “Data centers run hot because a lot of machines are packed into a small space. The loads in a data center fluctuate, and you cannot track that changing load fast enough in a cooling system, so you end up playing it safe. There’s an enormous amount of waste.”

Most of the facilities use chilled water, and it takes some time to lower or raise the temperature of the water by 5 degrees. New York state alone spends close to $600 million on utility costs for running its data centers. Half goes to power the computers; the other half is spent on cooling. And utility costs continue to rise.

Most researchers focus on smart workload management when they talk about “green” data centers, but Ghose and Sammakia say that’s not enough. They’re looking for a comprehensive solution. That will mean finding a way to spread the workload across all the machines, planning in advance for the workload allocation and the cooling budget. Ultimately, it means exercising cooling activities and workload activities synergistically.

Just-in-time provisioning of IT resources and just-in-time cooling are the keys here, said Ghose, who expects to set up an experimental data center with Sammakia and other collaborators soon. Companies such as Emerson Network Power and IBM have already expressed interest in the project.

Sammakia, who’s also the University’s executive director of economic development, said the test facility will give a boost to companies in the region and beyond. “Over the next five years, this will help us create hundreds of local jobs and attract companies to the area,” he said. “It will allow New York state and national companies to showcase their energy-efficiency projects.

“It’s a test facility, but at the same time it’s a real, operational data center. Each company will come in with its latest and greatest equipment.”

Ghose said an innovation that results in an energy reduction of, say, 15 percent could make a big splash. He believes their solution could result in savings of more than 25 percent. And the lessons drawn from data centers could pay off for desktop computers as well.

“The writing’s on the wall,” Ghose said. “Unless we address this now, things will become worse. Most server vendors are trying to pack more into the same space and making the problem worse. What makes it worse is the amount of heat you produce in one cubic foot of space. That’s going up significantly because things are becoming smaller and faster. And of course there’s a carbon footprint, the more energy you spend.”

Laboratory manager Lawrence Lehman, right, leads a tour for area business leaders.

Lab instrumentation includes light microscopy, laser microscopy, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, focused ion beam, atomic force microscopy, mesoscale machining, thermal machining, electronics instrumentation and a microfabrication facility.

The lab is staffed by PhD-level scientists, and its equipment is available to University and industry researchers.

Anju Sharma, senior scientist, talks with a student in the laboratory.

The ADL, a centralized, interdisciplinary research facility, enables the commercialization of microelectronic technologies and supports life sciences research applications.

Lab instrumentation includes X-ray diffraction and small angle X-ray.

Lab instrumentation includes light microscopy, laser microscopy, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, focused ion beam, atomic force microscopy, mesoscale machining, thermal machining, electronics instrumentation and a microfabrication facility.

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer and Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey said they believe CASP can help to address the national energy crisis as well as lead to the establishment of companies that will create more jobs in upstate New York.

“We are very grateful to Senator Schumer and Congressman Hinchey for their support in securing this funding and for their continuing support of the University,” Binghamton University President Lois B. DeFleur said. “This is an exciting investment in the University and yet another step in the advancement of the Center of Excellence and its research. It is vital that we look at long-term future energy generation from solar power, and Binghamton University is the right place to do just that.”

CASP will address the scientific challenges of reducing the cost of solar power and enhancing energy efficiency. The multidisciplinary center will draw expertise from engineering, computer science, chemistry and physics to focus on areas such as solar conversion efficiency, storage capabilities, solar module stability and power system cost reduction.

CASP will also work with industry to develop new technologies for defense, energy, aerospace, consumer and industrial markets by focusing on solar power sources integrated with new product designs. Potential applications include transportation communication systems, power generation for buildings and devices that will charge cell phone and laptops without the use of batteries.

“A place like this is the hope of the future of the Southern Tier and of America,” said Schumer, who added that he feels that we have a “moral imperative” to advance research on solar energy.Hinchey said he expects to seek additional federal funding for the center in the future. “We need – in the U.S. and frankly around the world – a new industrial revolution,” he said.

Building on the expertise of S3IP, which incorporates the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing and the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center, CASP will develop thin film solar modules. Mimicking nature’s own energy-conversion processes, these ultra thin technologies will allow for the design of layered devices that capture all frequencies of the solar spectrum.

Gerald Sonnenfeld, vice president for research, noted that CASP builds on the University’s and the region’s historic strengths. Binghamton, he said, has become a model in terms of building collaborations among government, industry and academia.

“We are committed to the development of unique projects that can improve people’s lives,” Sonnenfeld said.

Using a sustainable model that demands that the individual device will generate much more energy in one year than it takes to manufacture, CASP researchers will be able to develop new and cost-effective applications.

“We all feel the pinch of rising energy costs and, as a society, need to explore alternatives,” said Seshu Desu, dean of the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science and CASP director. “At the Watson School, our faculty and students are working on addressing the greatest challenges of our technology-intensive society and harnessing low-cost alternative energy sources is at the forefront of our priorities.”

Although the designation is not accompanied by additional funding in this year’s state budget, the news is quite significant nonetheless, and state legislators representing the area said the designation could bring millions of dollars to the University over the next few years. Binghamton joins five other Centers of Excellence, located in Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, Canandaigua and on Long Island.

The Center of Excellence program was created in 2001 to serve as a bridge between research programs, education institutions and the business community.

President Lois B. DeFleur said she expects the University can leverage the recognition as it seeks funding from the federal government and elsewhere. “Small scale systems packaging has been a research strength for more than a decade,” she said. “Now it has reached another level of innovation and collaboration.”

DeFleur said the new title will bring greater visibility to the center and enable it to move forward at a more rapid pace.

“This is great news for Binghamton University and our whole community and I applaud President DeFleur and the faculty for working with the Legislature to achieve this high honor,” said Sen. Thomas W. Libous, R-Binghamton. “Being a Center of Excellence will enable us to access more research dollars and help to create careers in the Southern Tier.”

DeFleur noted that the recognition is the result of a collaboration with Libous and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell.

“This prestigious designation acknowledges the significant contribution Binghamton University is making to the commercialization of science and technology,” Lupardo said. “The impact of becoming a Center of Excellence will have positive ramifications in our community for years to come.”
Bahgat Sammakia, director of the center and a professor of mechanical engineering, noted that the designation as a Center of Excellence is widely recognized, particularly because the nanotechnology center in Albany has been tremendously successful.

“We feel that we have the potential to create electronic products that will improve the way people live,” Sammakia said. “It will change the way people build electronics, and it has the opportunity to create a lot of jobs in New York.”

He noted that the area has a high potential for commercialization and that the center already has 16 corporate partners, including Endicott Interconnect Technologies, GE, Kodak, Corning, Philips, Lockheed Martin and IBM Corp. He expects the center to continue to seek opportunities to work with New York businesses. Research from the center will help existing firms and may lead to the creation of new companies as well.

“This is really great news, not just for the University but for the region,” DeFleur said. “This provides a lot of opportunities for our faculty and students to be involved with cutting-edge research.”