Patrick Fay
Stinson Professor of Nanotechnology in the College of Engineering
Electrical Engineering
261 Fitzpatrick Hall of Engineering
574-631-5693
Current Position
Stinson Professor of Nanotechnology in the College of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering
Education
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame
Research Interests
Prof. Fay's research in photovoltaics centers on novel approaches to achieving high-performance III-V semiconductor solar cells. The application of novel fabrication processing techniques to improve performance of solar cells for both terrestrial and space applications is an ongoing area of active research. Exploration of unconventional cell architectures, including ultra-lightweight solar cells for airborne applications requiring high specific power density, is another area of current interest. Research in energy efficient electronics includes development of high-power transistors for power conversion, high-efficiency high-speed transistors for energy-efficient wireless communications, and ultra-low-power devices for computation. These include vertical devices for high current/high voltage applications for DC/DC conversion and grid-tied storage applications based on GaN, ultra-fast highly-scaled GaN-channel HEMTs for efficient microwave and millimeter-wave communications and signal processing, and low-voltage tunneling-based heterostructure devices (TFETs and heterostructure backward diodes) in the InAs/AlGaSb and InGaAs/GaAsSb/InP material systems for ultra-low-power digital circuits.
Key Words
Electricity and Smart Grid Technology, Energy Efficiency and Consumption, Microwave, Millimeter-Wave, MMICs, Photovoltaics, Power Conversion, RF, Solar Photovoltaics, Thermophotovoltaics
Relevant Energy Publications
- Aylwin, Rubén, Gerardo Silva-Oelker, Carlos Jerez-Hanckes, and Patrick Fay. "Optimization methods for achieving high diffraction efficiency with perfect electric conducting gratings." JOSA A 37, no. 8 (2020): 1316-1326.
- Youtsey, Chris, Robert McCarthy, and Patrick Fay. "Epitaxial lift-off for III-nitride devices." In Semiconductors and Semimetals, vol. 102, pp. 467-514. Elsevier, 2019.
- Wang, Jingshan, Robert McCarthy, Chris Youtsey, Rekha Reddy, Jinqiao Xie, Edward Beam, Louis Guido, Lina Cao, and Patrick Fay. "Ion‐Implant Isolated Vertical GaN p‐n Diodes Fabricated with Epitaxial Lift‐Off From GaN Substrates." physica status solidi (a) 216, no. 4 (2019): 1800652.
- Ciarkowski, Timothy, Noah Allen, Eric Carlson, Robert McCarthy, Chris Youtsey, Jingshan Wang, Patrick Fay, Jinqiao Xie, and Louis Guido. "Connection between carbon incorporation and growth rate for GaN epitaxial layers prepared by OMVPE." Materials 12, no. 15 (2019): 2455.
- Li, Wenjun, Matt D. Brubaker, Bryan T. Spann, Kris A. Bertness, and Patrick Fay. "GaN nanowire MOSFET with near-ideal subthreshold slope." IEEE electron device letters 39, no. 2 (2017): 184-187.
Department Website
Group Website