laboratory 4

RESEARCH TEAM

Laboratory Head — Dr. Alexandru Muller ([email protected])

extended CV and publication list available here

He obtained M.Sc.in physics (1972) and PhD in Semiconductor Physics at Bucharest University in 1990;

In the early years of his career he worked on the design manufacturing and characterization of silicon microwave diodes (varactor, pin, multiplier SRD’s) and GaAs Schottky diodes, developing new innovative technological processes and high performance devices used in various industrial applications.

His PhD thesis was focused on a new physical model describing the switching behavior of narrow base pin diodes. This model was used in the optimization of the efficiency of microwave step recovery multiplier diodes. Results have been partially published in Solid State Electronics vol 32, pp. 593-601, 1989 (A Muller and S Voinigescu "Heavy doping ftfects and stored charge characteristics in narrow base PIN diodes").

Competences
- Silicon, GaAs and GaN micromachining and nanoprocessing, manufacturing of RF MEMS components and circuits, manufacuring of microwave passive membrane supported circuits, micromachined inductors, filters and antennae, monolithically as well as hybrid integrated receiver modules.

- developing acoustic devices (SAWs and FBARs) based on micromachining and nanoprocessing of wide bandgap semiconductors (GaN, AlN). The performances of the SAW and FBAR structures on GaN represent the actual state of the art in the topics. Results were published in IEEE El Dev. Lett. in 2009 and 2010. Dr Muller is now involved in developing of temperature and humidity sensors based on GaN GHz SAW and FBAR structures.

- In the last years Dr. Müller was involved in characterization techniques of microwave semiconductor devices and acoustic devices at cryogenic temperatures (1.5 – 6K) with/without magnetic field and also regarding devices, technology and characterization techniques for the quantum computing domain.

Publications
Dr Muller has published a few tens of papers in high ranked ISI journals like IEEE Electron Dev. Letters, Applied Optics, Thin Film Solids, Appl Phys Lett, Journ. of Micromech. and Microengng, IEEE Trans on MTT, Superlatice & Microstructures etc.. In most of them he was the first author. Dr Muller has more 100 papers in conference proceedings, and has written chapters in books published in Spriger, Francis &Taylor," Editura Academiei" printing houses.

Dr. Muller is reviewer at Elsevier, IoP and IEEE journals.

Dr. Muller is member of PhD Jury in “Politehnica” Univ. Bucharest, Univ. Bucharest and Univ. Paul Sabatier/ LAAS Toulouse.

Long term stages abroad:
- a six month stage in 1991/1992 at IMEC Leven;
- a six month stage at LAAS CNRSToulouse at Director de recherce (2003);

European Projects coordinator:
- coordinator of the the European FP4 „MEMSWAVE” project (1998-2001), one of the first RF-MEMS projects financed by the EC. The project was nominated in 2002 between the 10 finalists for the Descartes prize of the EC. This was the first and for a long time the only EC project in the IST topics coordinated by an Eastern European country.

- coordinator of the FP7 REGPOT- MIMOMEMS (2008 – 2011) “European Centre of Excellence in Microwave, Millimetre Wave and Optical Devices, based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems for Advanced Communication Systems and Sensors”.

- coordinator of the H2020 Marie Curie project “Integrated Crossbar of Microelectromechanical Selectors and Non-Volatile Memory Devices for Neuromorphic Computing” SelectX (2016-2018).

- coordinator of the ESA (European Space Agency) project: Contract No. 40000115202/15/NL/CBi “Microwave filters based on GaN/Si SAW resonators, operating at frequencies above 5 GHz” (2015-2017).

Dr A Muller was and is the leader of the Romanian team in:
- FP6 NoE AMICOM, 2004-2007, coordinator LAAS Toulouse.
- FP7 Integrated Project NANOTEC, 2011-2015, coordinator Thales TRT.
- FP7 Integrated Project SMARTPOWER, 2011-1016, coordinator Thales TRT.
- FP7 related projects ( ENIAC SE2A (coordinator NXP Semiconductor Netherlands BV), MERCURE (coordinator Thales Research and Technology, France).
- H2020 FETOPEN CHIRON, 2018 – 2021, coordinator IMEC Belgium
- H2020 FETOPEN IQubits, 2019 -2023, coordinator Aarhus Univ. Denmark
HORIZON EUROPE – RIA: „SPIDER” (2022-2025) (coordinated by IMEC, Belgium); „NANOMAT” (2022-2025) (coordinated by Thales TRT, France);
HORIZON EUROPE – EDF: AGAMI EURIGAMI (2022-2025) (coordinated by UMS GmbH, Germany);
HORIZON EUROPE – EDF: POWERFLEX (2022-2025) (coordinated by Thales TRT, France);
HORIZON EUROPE – EDF: POWERPACK (2022-2025) (coordinated by Thales TRT, France).

Dr. Mircea Dragoman ([email protected])

Mircea Dragoman was born in Bucharest in 1955. He graduated the Polytechnical Institute in Bucharest, Electronic Faculty, in 1980. He received the doctoral degree in electronics in 1991. In the period 1980-1984 he has worked as a design engineer in the factory for Automatic Elements (FEA) and then in the period 1984-1996 he has worked in the Research Institute for Electron Devices ( ICCE) Bucharest in the microwave laboratory where he designed and a wide range microwave devices.

Mircea Dragoman is a senior researcher I at the National Research Institute in Microtechnologies, since 1996.. He has realized the first carbon nanotube and graphene circuits in Romania, some of them being the first devices worldwide. He is managing now few Romanian and UE FP7 projects dedicated to nanoelectronics.

In the period 1992-1994 he was the recipient of the Humbold Fellowship award and he has followed postdoctoral studies at Duisburg University, Germany. He was invited professor at : CNR- Istituto di Electtronica dello Stato Solido-Roma (1996), Univ. Saint-Etienne –Franta (1997), Univ. Mannheim (1998-1999, 2001-2002), Univ. Frankfurt (2003), Univ. Darmstadt (2004); in the period 2005-2006. He was invited professor at CNRS LAAS in the period 2005-2006 and 2008-2010.He had more than 40 invited papers in UE and and he taught 3 univesity courses in France (Nanoelectronics, 2005-2006), in Germany (Nonlinear Phenomena,1992), and Romania (Advanced technological processes, 2010-2012).

He has published 205 scientific papers from which 102 are in ISI ranked peer reviewed journals which are cited 607 times (without self-citations) and has Hirsch factor =13. The papers are dedicated to the following areas: nanoelectronics, microwaves, MEMS, optoelectronics. My current research interests are relied to nanoelectronics. He is co-author of the following books:

D. Dragoman, M. Dragoman “Advanced Optoelectronic Devices”, Springer, 421 pages (1999) ,(2011).
D. Dragoman, M. Dragoman, “Optical Characterization of Solids, Springer, 450 pages (2002),
D.Dragoman, M.Dragoman “Quantum Classical Analogies”, Springer, 400 pages (2004)
M.Dragoman, D.Dragoman-Nanoelectronics. Principles and Devices, Artech House, Boston, USA (2006), 1st edition, 420 pages i,( 2006).
M.Dragoman, D.Dragoman-Nanoelectronics. Principles and Devices, Artech House, Boston, USA (2008), 2nd edition, 500 pages,(2009).
D.Dragoman, and M.Dragoman, Bionanoelectronics, Springer, 300 pages , (2012).

In 2002 he was nominalized at the descartes Prize of UE together other colleagues from IMT and other 6 research teams from abroad. He has received the Romanian Academy Prize Gh. Cartianu in 1999, for the book Advanced Optoelectronic Devices, Springer.

Dr. Dan Neculoiu ([email protected])

Dr. Dan Neculoiu graduated the Polytechnical Institute of Bucharest, Faculty of Electronics in 1985; PhD degree in 1997. As a senior scientist at IMT-Bucharest, his main research areas are the electromagnetic simulations for the design and modelling of microwave circuits, membrane supported millimetre wave filters, antennae and receiver modules. He participated in the FP4 Project “MEMSWAVE” and in FP6 NoE in RF-MEMS “AMICOM”.

Now he is the head of the Romanian team in the FP7 project MEMS-4-MMIC. He is the author of more than 100 papers published in journals and Conference Proceedings in the area of RF-MEMS. Dr Dan Neculoiu is also full professor at the “Politehnica” University Bucharest.

Dr. Sergiu Iordanescu ([email protected])

Sergiu Iordanescu graduated the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania, in 1972 and received the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from the University “Politehnica” Bucharest, Romania, in 2000.

From 1972 to 1977, he was with the Institute of Physics and Technology of Radiation Apparatus, Romania. He was Research Scientist with the National Institute for R&D in Microtechnologies (IMT) from 1977 to 2000 and Senior Engineer with Alvarion Romania SRL from 2000 to 2015. Since 2015, he is Senior Researcher with the National Institute for R&D in Microtechnologies (IMT), Bucharest, Romania.

He is the author of more than 90 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. His research interests include design of various microwave and mm-wave circuits as well as materials and devices characterisation. He received the “Tudor Tanasescu” Romanian Academy award in 2003. He is IEEE member since 1991.

Dr. Valentin Buiculescu ([email protected])

Mr. Buiculescu received in 1972 M. Sc. degree in industrial electronics, and PhD title in radio communication engineering in 2000 from “Politehnica” University Bucharest. He is IEEE member, MTT Society, starting from 1990.

From 1972 to 2000 he worked with IMT Bucharest (ICCE until 1996); he is currently a Senior Research Engineer at IMT Bucharest.

From 2000 to 2010, he was senior research staff engineer with Alvarion Ltd., engaged in development of radio structures used in licensed and wireless access and radio certification for FCC, ETSI and Japanese standards. Now he is involved in projects regarding micro-processed structures and components aimed for low power communication applications.

His main research interests concern radio system design and optimization, microwave mixers, small signal amplifiers, SIW structures, mechanical design.

Dr. Dan Vasilache ([email protected])

Dan Vasilache received his PhD in 2011 from Univ. POLITEHNICA of Bucharest. He is senior researcher at IMT and between 2010 and 2012 was senior researcher at FBK-irst Trento, Italy. His competences include technological design, masks design and manufacturing and technological processes development for silicon, AIIIBV semiconductor compounds and wide band gap semiconductors; he was part of the team which developed SAW structures using nanolithographic processes starting with 2007 and in last 4 years he was involved in packaging systems developing for RF MEMS structures. He co-authored 31 papers in ISI Journals and more than 175 in total and he was part of the team in more than 15 International Projects and more than 40 National Projects. h-index 14.

Eng. Cristina Buiculescu ([email protected])

She has obtained M.Sc. in Electronics at “Politechnica” University Bucharest.

She is working as a senior researcher III in the RF MEMS Laboratory. Her main research activities are now in the field of circuits for the millimeter wave communications (passive circuits elements, monolithically and hybrid integrated receiver front-ends) based on semiconductor (Si, GaAs, GaN) micromachining and acoustic devices (FBARs and SAWs) for

applications in the GHz frequency range, based on micromachining and nanoprocessing of wide band gap semiconductors, (GaN and AlN. She is co-author of 5 ISI papers and 25 international conference papers on microwave and RF-MEMS devices.
She was manager for IEEE International Semiconductor Conference- CAS betwen 2004-2017.

Dr. Alina Cismaru ([email protected])

She graduated Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest in 1998, Master degree in Solid State Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest in 2000, graduated in Economy, Management Faculty, Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest in 2005, graduated PhD in Solid State Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest in 2008.

From 1998 is working as a researcher, in Micromachined Microwave Structures, Circuits and Devices Laboratory (RF- MEMS laboratory)– IMT Bucharest.
She is senior resercher I since 2021 and President of the Union since 2012

From 2010 until 2013 she is acting as a Postdoc Researcher in the POSDRU 6700 projectin RF- MEMS laboratory– IMT Bucharest financed by European Comunity and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport Romania.

During the period 2002 – 2005, Dr. Cismaru was involved in modeling and microwave measurements of a micromachined MSW devices during the professional stages (2-4 months) in Microwave Microsystem Technology Group (M2T) - CNR Institute, Roma, Italy.

Professional abilities are the following: modeling and microwave measurements of a micromachined MSW devices, modelling, fabrication and characterisation of electromagnetic band-gap filters in coplanar waveguide (CPW) configuration, microwave measurements of SAW and FBAR devices, microwave and DC measurements of devices based on graphene and CNT for RF-MEMS and biosensors applications, microwave and milimeter wave devices characterisation using on wafer setup and Vector Network Analyser for 0.4 – 110 GHz frequency range. She is co-author of 18 ISI papers and 20 international conference papers on microwave and RF-MEMS devices.

Dr. Alexandra Nicoloiu (Stefanescu) ([email protected])

Dr. Alexandra Nicoloiu (Stefanescu) graduated from Politehnica University of Bucharest, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, in 2006 and obtained her PhD in 2010. She participated as a team member in several national and European projects (FP6, FP7, ESA, ENIAC). She joined IMT-Bucharest in 2009 in the frame of the FP7 MIMOMEMS. Between 2012 – 2016 Dr. Alexandra Nicoloiu was partner team leader in a national project (Partnership) dedicated to advanced methodologies for the simulation of RF-MEMS switches and between 2015 – 2017 she coordinated a national project (Human resources, Young Research Teams). Her current research activities focus mostly on the numerical analysis and experimental development of GHz acoustic devices on WBG materials (GaN, AlN) working as sensors.

She is involved in the team of two H2020 FET-OPEN projects dedicated to spin waves for quantum computing. In H2020 CHIRON project (2018 – 2021) she is involved in the development of magnetic sensors based on SAW devices on GaN/Si working at frequencies around 10 GHz. She is the (co-) author of more than 40 papers in journals and conference proceedings; h-index 8 (Google Scholar).
Dr. Nicoloiu was awarded with the Gheorghe Cartianu prize of the Romanian Academy in 2016.

Dr. Alina-Cristina Bunea ([email protected])

Dr. Alina-Cristina Bunea received the B.Sc. (2009), M.Sc. (2011) and Ph.D. (2016) degrees from the “Politehnica” University of Bucharest, Romania. Her PhD thesis entitled “Contributions to Millimeter Wave Antennas For Imaging Applications”, focused on the design and characterization of high-performance antennas for a single pixel passive receiver front-end for imaging applications.

She is currently working as a senior research scientist at the National Institute of R&D in Microtechnologies (IMT) Bucharest, where she is involved in the design, 3D electromagnetic modeling and characterization of passive and active microwave circuits (antennas, filters, resonators, membrane supported transmission lines, RF-MEMS switches, surface/bulk acoustic resonators). Other interests include substrate integrated waveguides, design and modeling of millimeter wave structures for the LTCC technology, system-in-package approaches using 3D printing and the use of graphene in microwave and millimeter wave passive structures.

She was involved as a key team member in over 15 national and international research projects and has authored over 60 peer reviewed publications (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=E9spLiYAAAAJ&hl=en)

Dr. Martino Aldrigo ([email protected])

Dr. Martino Aldrigo obtained his M.Sc. in Telecommunications Engineering in 2009 at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy, with the final score 110/110 cum laude. In 2014 he obtained his PhD in Electronics Engineering, Telecommunications and Information Technology at the same university (PhD thesis available at the link http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/6377/1/Aldrigo_Martino_tesi.pdf).
In January 2014 he was hired at IMT Bucharest as Assistant Researcher and, since 2016, he is a permanent Scientific Researcher III (CSIII). He is/has been involved in many national and international projects, as both team member and coordinator (https://www.imt.ro/M-TMA-ID/index.php, https://www.imt.ro/NANOFERRO-RF/index.html).

In particular, since 2019 he is a team member in the two H2020 projects “NANOPOLY” (H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01, https://project-nanopoly.com/) and “NANOSMART” (H2020-ICT-2018-2, https://project-nanosmart.com/), and since October 2020 hen is the responsible for IMT of the H2020 project “NANO-EH” (H2020-EIC-FETPROACT-2019, https://www.imt.ro/NANO-EH/).
As per 2020, he has published (as main author or co-author) 1 book chapter, 29 papers in ISI journals and 37 papers in conference proceedings. For a complete list of his publications, please see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=l0QbHDcAAAAJ&hl=ro. His research interests focus on the design, modeling, 3D electromagnetic simulation, fabrication and experimental characterization of micro- and nano-devices and systems for microwave and millimeter-wave applications, based on graphene and other innovative 2D materials, and ferroelectric thin films for low-voltage and CMOS-compatible devices.

Dr. Ioana Zdru (Giangu) ([email protected])

Ioana Zdru (Giangu) received her MSc in 2013 and PhD in 2017 from “Politehnica” University of Bucharest, Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications. The subject of the PhD thesis was devoted to sensors based on acoustic waves. She is employee of IMT Bucharest stating from April 2012. She participated in several national and European research projects (FP7, ENIAC). She (co-)authored more than 15 papers in journals and conference proceedings. She is involved in microwave characterization SAW devices and sensors on WBG materials. Dr. Zdru (Giangu) was awarded with the Gheorghe Cartianu prize of the Romanian Academy in 2016 for the team work dedicated to GaN/Si SAW based temperature sensors. h-index 6 (Google Scholar).

Dr. Claudia Nastase ([email protected])

Dr. Claudia Nastase graduated in 2001 and received her PhD in 2007 both from University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics. She worked in University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics (until December 2016), where she was involved in research activities in more than 30 national projects related to material physics. She is the (co-) author of more than 25 papers in journals and conference proceedings. Between June 2011 and June 2012 she worked as associate researcher in CEA-IRAMIS Saclay, France. Staring from January 2017 she is employee of IMT Bucharest where her research activities include measurements of surface acoustic wave sensing structures. h-index 9 (Google Scholar).

She was involved in two H2020 FET-OPEN projects, dedicated to spin waves and qubit structures for quantum computing. She is currently involved in four HORIZON Europe projects, dedicated to GaN Advanced Microwave Integration.

Phys. George Boldeiu ([email protected])

George Boldeiu graduated Electrical Engineering in 2001 and the Faculty of Physics in 2014. In 2001 he was hired in IMT Bucharest and between 2007 and 2017 he worked in the Simulation Laboratory as simulation engineer, being involved in the simulation of the electrical, mechanical and thermal phenomena of MEMS devices. For a short period, 2017-2019, he worked as thermal simulation engineer at Continental, Timisoara. Here he developed and ensured thermal management for High Flash Lidar.

In 2019 he returned to IMT and currently he activates in the Micromachined structures, microwave circuits and devices Laboratory (RF-MEMS). Starting from 2020 George is PhD student in the frame of the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology from Politehnica University of Bucharest. Now, he is involved in four HORIZON Europe projects, dedicated to GaN Advanced Microwave Integration.

Drd Monica Nedelcu

Monica Nedelcu graduated from Politehnica University of Bucharest, Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications, in 1993. She worked as Electronics Engineer at ROM-QUARTZ Bucharest, where she was involved in the development and manufacture of quartz crystal devices and from 2007, she was involved in the research and development of BAW & SAW acoustic devices. His research activity has focused on the development of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, on different piezoelectric substrates (quartz, langasite, lithium tantalate, etc.), such as mass sensors, biochemical sensors and gas sensing sensors. In 2022 she was employed in IMT Bucharest and involved in characterization of SAW devices on III-Nitride substrates. She is now part of the research team in four HORIZON Europe projects, dedicated to GaN Advanced Microwave Integration.

Dr Mihaela Cristina Ciornei

Mihaela-Cristina Ciornei is a scientific researcher working in IMT Bucharest since 2019. She graduated in 2005 Politehnica University of Bucharest, Electronics and Telecommunication Faculty. The Master degree in Material Sciences was obtained at Ecole Polytechnique, France. The PhD degree in Physics was obtained as a result of the collaboration between Universitat de Barcelona, Spain and Ecole Polytechnique, France. She has been involved as a participant in the national and international projects in IMT Bucharest. Her current research activities are microwave characterization of SAW devices on III-Nitride substrates, SAW based temperature sensors and effects related to interaction of SAW devices with spin waves.

Drd Andrei Florescu
Andrei Florescu received the Master's degree from the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politehnica University of Bucharest in 2020. His main interests include microwave devices and circuits and novel computational devices. Currently he is employed at the Microwave Laboratory, IMT-Bucharest, Romania. He is PhD student since 2022.