Newcastle University

Background

I was born and raised in Mexico City. I lived there until i concluded a five year long first degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). There i had the opportunity to write my thesis under the supervision of Dr Elfego Ruiz-Schneider and Dr Francisco García Ugalde, following a one year research placement at the Astronomy Institute. Short after graduating in 2003, i moved to Newcastle to study the MSc in Microelectronics and continued with a PhD with Si/SiGe group the following year, finally graduating in 2008. Both during my PhD and my initial postdoctoral research i have worked alongside Dr Sarah Olsen and Prof Anthony O'Neill. My current research interests involve the growth and characterisation of epitaxiala graphene for electronic device applications.

Roles and responsibilities

Responsible for the operation and maintenance of the AFM/Raman laboratory.

Qualifications

 PhD Semiconductors Technology from Newcastle University, UK (2004 – 2008). Thesis: Material characterisation of strained Si/SiGe MOSFETs

 MSc Microelectronics from Newcastle University, UK (2003 – 2004). Dissertation: Impact of virtual substrate Ge composition on the series resistance of strained Si/SiGe MOSFETs

BSc Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico (1996 – 2001). Thesis: Image noise reduction for an infra-red camera/spectrograph

Languages

Spanish, English, German, French (beginner), Russian (beginner).

Informal interests

I drink coffee and read a lot (both things). When not at work, i can often be found reading away in some cafe in town. I am also a guitarist and have an  interest for roots, folk and blues music. Other interests include stragegy games such as Magic the Gathering and chess and swing dancing.

Research Interests

Design, fabrication and characterisation of electronic materials and devices, development of nanoscale physical analysis techniques. Extensive experience using atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photo-spectroscopy (XPS) and electrical I-V, C-V and Hall measurements. Characterisation of semiconductor properties using micro-electromechanical systems based structures. Work in clean room environment: photolithography, film deposition by e-beam evaporation and sputtering, chemical etching and thermal process. Areas of expertise: graphene and strained silicon technologies for electronic devices.

2010 - 2011: EEE8103/EEE8019 Semiconductor Device Fabrication

• Kapoor R, Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, Bull SJ. Nanoscale Characterization of Gate Leakage in Strained High-Mobility Devices. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 2011, 58(11), 4016-4023.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG, Coulson H. Defect identification in strained Si/SiGe heterolayers for device applications. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 2009, 42(17), 6.
• Persson S, Fjer M, Escobedo-Cousin E, Malm G, Wang YB, Hellstrom PE, Ostling M, Parker EHC, Nash LJ, Majhi P, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG. Fabrication and characterisation of strained Si heterojunction bipolar transistors on virtual substrates. In: IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). 2008, San Francisco, CA: IEEE.
• Persson S, Fjer M, Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, Malm G, Wang YB, Hellstrom PE, Ostling M, O'Neill AG. Strained-Silicon Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 2010, 57(6), 1243-1252.
• Olsen SH, Yan L, Agaiby R, Escobedo-Cousin E, O'Neill AG, Hellström PE, Ostling M, Lyutovich K, Kasper E, Claeys C, Parker EHC. Strained Si/SiGe MOS technology: Improving gate dielectric integrity. Microelectronic Engineering 2009, 86(3), 218-223.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, Dobrosz P, Bull SJ, O'Neill AG, Coulson H, Claeys C, Loo R, Delhougne R, Caymax M. Thermal stability of supercritical thickness-strained Si layers on thin strain-relaxed buffers. Journal of Applied Physics 2007, 102(12), -.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG, Alatise OM, Agaiby RMB, Dobrosz P, Braithwaite G, Cuthbertson A, Grasby T, Parker EHC. Strained Si/strained SiGe/relaxed SiGe structures: identifying roughness due to compressed SiGe and its impact on high mobility MOSFETs. In: Materials REsearch Society Conference (MRS). 2007, San Francisco, USA.
• Olsen SH, Escobedo-Cousin E, Varzgar JB, Agaiby R, Seger J, Dobrosz P, Chattopadhyay S, Bull SJ, O'Neill AG, Hellstrom P-E, Edholm J, Ostling M, Lyutovich KL, Oehme M, Kasper E. Control of self-heating in thin virtual substrate strained Si MOSFETs. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 2006, 53(9), 2296-2305.
• Yan L, Olsen SH, Escobedo-Cousin E, O'Neill AG. Improved gate oxide integrity of strained Si n-channel metal oxide silicon field effect transistors using thin virtual substrates. Journal of Applied Physics 2008, 103(9), 094508.
• Tsang YL, Chattopadhyay S, Uppal S, Escobedo-Cousin E, Ramakrishnan HK, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG. Modeling of the threshold voltage in strained Si/Si1-x Gex/S1-yGey(x ≥ y) CMOS architectures. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 2007, 54(11), 3040-3048.
• Varzgar JB, Kanoun M, Uppal S, Chattopadhyay S, Tsang YL, Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG, Hellstrom PE, Edholm J, Ostling M, Lyutovich K, Oehme M, Kasper E. Reliability study of ultra-thin gate oxides on strained-Si/SiGe MOS structures. Material Science and Engineering B 2006, 135(3), 203-206.
• Bhaskar U, Passi V, Houri S, Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, Pardoen T, Raskin JP. On-chip tensile testing of nanoscale silicon free-standing beams. Journal of Materials Research 2012, 27(3), 571-579.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, Pardoen T, Bhaskar U, Raskin JP. Experimental observations of surface roughness in uniaxially loaded strained Si microelectromechanical systems-based structures. Applied Physics Letters 2011, 99(24), 241906.
• Fjer M, Persson S, Escobedo-Cousin E, O'Neill AG. Low Frequency Noise in Strained Si Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 2011, 58(12), 4196-4203.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Vassilevski K, Hopf T, Wright N, O'Neill A, Horsfall A, Goss J, Cumpson PJ. Local solid phase growth of few-layer graphene on silicon carbide from nickel silicide supersaturated with carbon. Journal of Applied Physics 2013, 113(11), 114309.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Vassilevski K, Hopf T, Wright N, O'Neill A, Horsfall A, Goss J, Cumpson P. Optimising the Growth of Few-Layer Graphene on Silicone Carbide by Nickel Silicidation. Materials Science Forum 2013, 740-742, 121-124.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Vassilevski K, Nikitina I, Wright N, O'Neill A, Horsfall A, Goss J. Local Solid Phase Epitaxy of Few-Layer Graphene on Silicon Carbide. In: 14th International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials (ICSCRM). 2012, Cleveland, Ohio, USA: Trans Tech Publications Ltd.