Professor Rebecca Cheung

Professor and Head of Research Institute

Email: 

Telephone: 

+44(0)131 6505749

Location: 

1.06 Scottish Microelectronics Centre

Social Media: 

Engineering Discipline: 

  • Electronics and Electrical Engineering

Research Institute: 

  • Integrated Micro and Nano Systems

Research Theme: 

  • Smart MEMS and Microsystems Technology

Biography: 

Rebecca Cheung received her secondary and tertiary education in Scotland. After obtaining a first class honours degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Glasgow, she was awarded a Scholarship from the Croucher Foundation to study towards a Ph.D, which she received from the same University in 1990. During her Ph.D, she was a visiting researcher with the Semiconductor Technology Group at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Centre in Yorktown Heights, USA, where high density plasma etching techniques were developed for GaAs nanostructures. The process-induced material damage was characterised using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and quantum transport techniques.

Professor Cheung joined the University of Edinburgh in 2000 and her current research interests include Silicon Carbide Microelectromechanical Systems, Biomimetical Systems and Graphene. She is funded by EPSRC and Scottish Enterprise to develop fabrication processes and technologies for the production of microelectromechanical systems in silicon carbide; as well as a multi-channel biomimetical system consisting of an array of resonating gate transistors integrated with neural electronics for mimicking the cochlea.

Previously, Professor Cheung had been a visiting scientist with the Mesoscopic Physics Group in the Department of Applied Physics at Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submicron Technology, The Netherlands; the Semiconductor Technology Group at the Laboratory for Electromagnetic Fields and Microwave Electronics, ETHZ, Switzerland and the Nanoelectronics Research Center at Glasgow, working on various topics related to semiconductor technology, process-induced materials damage in GaAs nanostructures, mesoscopic physics in SiGe heterostructures and microwave circuits in InP for gigabit electronics.

Additionally, she had been a founding member of the "Nanostructure Engineering Science and Technology" (NEST) Group at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand in 1998, with research funding from the prestigious Marsden Fund administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand for the research programme "Science and Engineering of Nanostructures and Devices".

Professor Cheung serves on numerous conference committees and scientific panels. She had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2012, is a senior member of the IEEE, a Fellow of the IET and is an Honorary Professor with the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt University.

In 2013, Professor Cheung served as Program Chair for the 57th International Conference on Electron, Ion, Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication (EIPBN), the premier conference on the science and technology of nanopatterning; and now serves in the conference advisory committee.

Academic Qualifications: 

  • BSc in E&E Eng (1st class honours), PhD, both from the University of Glasgow

Professional Qualifications and Memberships: 

  • FRSE, FIET, SMIEEE

Teaching: 

  • Bioelectronics, Microelectronic Devices, Nanotechnology, Analogue Electronics, Microsystems Group Design Project

Research Interests: 

Nanotechnology and Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS)

 

Silicon Carbide MEMS for Harsh Environments

Silicon Carbide is a promising material candidate for the development of microelectromechanical (MEM) systems. Because of its excellent electrical, mechanical and chemical properties, it is suitable for applications in harsh environments. The aim of this project will be to design experimental structures and to develop the challenging processing techniques that are necessary for the realisation of prototype sensors and actuators.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials

An example of on-going research on 2D materials can be seen here:

Paper

One-dimensional (1D) nanowires

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NWs) possess interesting properties for developing sensor applications. This project involves the development of hydrothermal growth of ZnO NWs and their integration with device structures for force sensing and other applications.

Paper

Graphene MEMS and Electronics

Looking beyond conventional electronics based in silicon, it is conceivable that the next revolution in electronics would be based on the integration of another element with silicon. So far, the most promising candidate element set to revolutionise next generation electronics is carbon. This project aims to focus on the engineering aspect of research in this exciting field - to develop novel methods for the integration of carbon-based materials between metallic electrodes on silicon over large areas. Such a step would provide a fundamental basis for the future development of carbon-based electronics.

MEMS/CMOS biomimetic research

The research project involves the development and implementation of an adaptable micro-electromechanical (MEM) acoustic transducer inspired by the behaviour of the human ear. The detection of the acoustic signal and its conversion into the electrical domain can be performed with resonant gate transistors (RGTs). The active cochlear mechanism of the human ear could be replicated by integrating an array of RGTs with a feedback control system to operate as a selective real-time adaptive multichannel microphone. The potential outcome of this project will have tremendous impact on the fundamental understanding of sound interpretation as well as improvements in hearing aid technology.

 

Specialities: 

  • MEMS, Nanoelectronics

Further Information: 

Present members

Yun Jiang

Dexiang Zhang

Jacob Wang

Rasool Siddiqui

Past members

Dr Liudi Jiang - Professor, School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton

Dr Natalie Plank - Senior Lecturer in Physics, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Dr Stefan Enderling - Australia

Louise Teo - Germany

Ian Bright - Australia

Dr Tongtong Zhu - University of Cambridge

Dr Petros Argyrakis - Greece

Dr Kin Kiong Lee - University of Melbourne, Australia

Shah Baten - Imperial College London

Dr Carolina Mateo Segura - Lecturer, Heriot-Watt University

Dr Philippa Parmiter - Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage, Edinburgh

Isaac Gual - Intesis, Spain

Dr Damien Thuau - Associate Professor, University of Bordeaux, France

Dr Juan Jose Sanz-Fernandez - European Space Agency, The Netherlands

Dr Rhonira Latif - Senior Lecturer, The National University of Malaysia, Malaysia

Dr Boris Svilicic - Professor, Department of Marine Electronics and Communications, University of Rijeka, Croatia

Dr Enrico Mastropaolo - Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Scotland - sadly deceased

Dr Tao Chen - Professor, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui, China

Eldad Grady - Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Dr Shiwei Wang - Reader, University of Edinburgh

Dr Christian Nunez Alvarez - Keysight Technologies Inc., US

Dr Rui Zhang - Research Fellow, Condensed Matter Physics group, University of Manchester

Dr Asa'ad Al-masha'al - Lecturer, University of Basrah, Iraq

Dr Graham Wood - Process Engineer, Scottish Microelectronics Centre, University of Edinburgh

Dr Karina Jeronimo Martinez - Process Engineer, Newport Wafer Fab, Cardiff, Wales

Behzad Jazizadeh - University of Warwick, UK

Dr Yulin Geng - Research Associate, Jingjinji National Center of Technology Innovation

Dr Jing Xu - Research Associate, Microphone Company in Edinburgh

Dr Ammar Bin Che Mahzan - Canada

Dr Stephen Mbisike - Power Company in Warwick

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Beyond science and engineering, I play Schubert, Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Händel etc...