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Canada Research Chair in Advanced Materials for Microelectronics and Optoelectronics

Patrick Desjardins, of the École Polytechnique de Montréal, specializes in the science and engineering of advanced materials for microelectronics and optoelectronics, two industries which encompass the fibre-optic telecommunications and data storage and processing industries. The silicon-based microelectronics industry alone represents a worldwide market of $211 billion. The objective of the chair is to develop new materials and new combinations of materials to meet the pressing needs of these industries.

New Materials for Microelectronics and Optoelectronics !

Some of tomorrow’s technologies belong to the world of the infinitesimally small. Researchers working on new semiconductors are approaching the physical limits of miniaturization. And at scales of such minuteness, the very physical properties of a given material may be rather different from those of the same material at larger scales of magnitude. Therefore, to design the next generation of devices and circuits, we need to know more about materials and processes at the atomic level.

École Polytechnique, the Université de Montréal and the École des Hautes Études Commerciales together founded the Technopole sciences et génie in Montréal. This scientific and technological research initiative will be a national and international powerhouse for converging research in these cutting-edge fields. The chair’s work on advanced materials will contribute the development of key aspects of the Technopole’s operations in four of its seven priority sectors. The chair will also help attract more world-class professors in this sector which is so essential to the Canadian economy.

As Canada Research Chair, Professor Desjardin’s scientific and technological work will have significant impact on such strategically important fields as microelectronics, optoelectronics and nanotechnology. His research will stimulate fundamental work in solid physics while also making available to Canadian researchers new materials and heterostuctures. This chair also meets a crying need for specialized workers in these fields which are of such pressing importance to the Canadian economy.

Professor Desjardins serves on the editorial board of a major journal (Thin Solid Films) and as Assistant Director of the Laboratoire d’analyse des surfaces du Groupe de recherche en physique et technologie des couches minces (Surface Analysis Laboratory of the Thin Film Physics and Technology Research Group).

Patrick Desjardins, Full professor
Engineering Physics department
(514) 340-4711 ext. 4305
patrick.desjardins@polymtl.ca