Professor Richard A. Kiehl
Richard A. Kiehl joined the University of California, Davis as professor and chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering in January 2008. He was professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota from 1999 to 2008 and acting professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University from 1996 to 1999. From 1992 to 1995 he was assistant director of the Quantum Electron Device Laboratory at Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd, Japan. Prior to that he was a member of technical staff at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center (1985-1992), AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill (1980-1985), and Sandia National Laboratories (1974-1980). He received the Ph. D. degree from the School of Electrical Engineering, Purdue University.
Nanoelectronics & Bio-Nanotechnology Research
Kiehl explores new device concepts, circuit architectures, and self-assembly techniques for the development of nanometer-scale electronics for information processing, signal processing, and sensing applications. His work draws on extensive experience at corporate research labs in developing high performance electronics exploiting new materials, novel device structures, and unconventional fabrication techniques in GaAs-based and Si-based heterostructures. A major theme in his current research is the exploration of novel concepts at the interface between nanoscale electronics and biological systems.
An example of his work in information processing is his investigation of nanoscale circuitry based on a radically different approach in which the dynamics of interactions between the tunneling phase or the spin of electrons in an array of nanoparticles is used for computation.
He investigates device concepts for such novel nanoscale circuitry based on single-electron effects and spin magnetic moment in normal and ferromagnetic nanoparticles and on nonlinear behavior in organic molecules.
In addition to using e-beam lithography and scanning probe techniques for the fabrication and characterization of these and other devices, such as semiconductor nanowire FETs, he studies the electrical characteristics of nanoscale FET's based on carbon nanotubes and semiconductor nanowires, he explores the use of DNA as a scaffolding for self-assembling nanoparticles, nanowires, and molecules into electronic circuitry. This approach could be used to integrate devices at a density and a precision far beyond those possible with lithographic techniques. His collaborative studies of such biologically based self-assembly also includes the use of peptides and proteins.
Kiehl's research is unusually interdisciplinary in nature. He collaborates with faculty and students in electrical & computer engineering, physics, chemistry, chemical engineering & materials science, and biochemistry - both at UC Davis and other institutions.
Kiehl's research in nanotechnology began in Japan where he explored the use of material composition and strain to create arrays of nanoparticles within a semiconductor. He continued this focus at Stanford and at the University of Minnesota where he created MONALISA (Molecular Nanoscience Alliance for Interdisciplinary Studies and Activities) to foster interdepartmental collaboration in applications in molecular nanotechnology while he began his own collaborations in this field. He was theme leader from 2004 - 2010 for the research team on "Nanoscale Architectures and Information Processing Paradigms" SRC/MARCO research center on Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics (FENA - Phase I, 2004-2010). At UC Davis, Kiehl is principal investigator for the DoD Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) on "Biologically Assembled Quantum Electronic Arrays", which is comprised of a broad range of activities carried out by investigators at six universities. The goal of this initiative is to explore biological routes for fundamental understanding quantum electronic systems in nanoparticle arrays for creating new capabilities for computing, signal processing, and sensing.
