Dr Goutam Kumar Dalapati, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, published a research paper “Improvement on Photoresponse Properties of Self-Powered ITO/InP Schottky Junction Photodetector by Interfacial ZnO Passivation” in the reputed Journal of Electronic Materials, Springer. Photodetection has emerged as the key technology in contemporary science because of their wide range of applications in daily life and in industry, including astronomy, surveillance, environmental monitoring, machine vision, and cameras in smart phones. Commercial photodiodes should meet the criteria of high charge carrier mobility, small exciton binding energy, and higher stability. This intrigued Dr Goutam to indulge in the study of photodetector which is essential to improve several electrical parameters such as low power consumption, and higher sensitivity.

In this research, Dr Goutam developed a high-performance photodetector using Indium phosphide/indium tin oxide (InP/ITO) semiconductor metal junction. He explains, “Photodetection in semiconductors follows the principle of generating electron-hole pairs under incident light higher than or equal to its bandgap. In Schottky type photodiode, at thermal equilibrium, the Fermi levels of the metal and the semiconductor are equalized, and a transfer of electronic charge occurs from the semiconductor to the metal. Moreover, these charge transport properties can be simply tailored by compositional engineering, which provides plenty of space to modulate the performance metrics of the photodetectors. During my research, the atomic layer deposition of zinc oxide (ZnO) on the InP surface was found to increase the valence band offset for current conduction in the photodiode. Photoresponse properties were believed to improve through effective hole blocking by the ZnO interface layer which further prevents the surface recombination of photo-induced generated electron-hole pair. Through my research, I deciphered that the ITO/ZnO/InP photodiode exhibited a maximum photoresponsivity of 44.2 mAW−1 under a 520 nm laser irradiation with an illumination power of 1 μW at the zero bias voltage.”

For the successful implementation of the proposed ITO/ZnO/InP photodiode in the manufacturing levels, significant efforts are essential. Dr Goutam acknowledges that device to device variability must be addressed which arise from the deposition condition of the ZnO layer by atomic layer deposition. Surface defects reduction and selection of charge collecting electrodes must be optimized to improve the performance of the photodetector. Thus, Dr Goutam will dedicate his future research work to study patterned 2D graphene-based electrode to improve the performance. Also, n-type 2D MoS2 and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) passivation will be studied by him on the III-V semiconductor surface for better photoresponsivity.

SRM University-AP has been honoured with the gracious presence of the Hon’ble Minister of Education Dr Adimulapu Suresh on November 17, 2020, when he came to inaugurate the sub Post Office at the SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh Campus. He visited the campus and, witnessed its infrastructure, and discussed the future plans and goals of SRMAP with Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor. In his welcome address, Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor expressed his gratitude to the Minister for finding some time to visit SRMAP. With a well-documented presentation, he narrated how SRMAP has embarked upon the vessel of excellence and innovation within a meagre span of just two years. The three-year-old university has already published almost 300 papers in reputed journals, has 27 projects with an outlay of 14 crores and 17 patents.

Minister of Education with SRM FacultyIn his message, the august guest of the day, Dr Suresh expressed his joy to see a university achieving such great heights within two years in the realms of research and education. While presenting the offer letters to the placed students, he was enraptured to see that SRMAP provides such quality education that not only students from engineering, but also the students from other general degree courses were able to bag desired packages from reputed companies like Deloitte etc. According to Dr Suresh, Hon’ble Minister, the greatest predicament of the country is not unemployment but unemployability as most educational institutions fail to deliver a proper and complete education that can satisfy the demands of the present world and make the students job-ready. He was delighted to know that SRMAP, since its inception, always strived to make curriculums industry-oriented, put particular emphasis on the placement training to make students interview-ready, encouraged the students for research since their undergraduate studies, helped them to grow and know the world with the Semester Abroad Programme. Among the maiden batch of SRM University-AP, 40% of students have bagged job offers with packages of 10 lakhs per annum or higher, with the highest offered salary of 29.5 lakhs per annum. The Minister of Education was greatly satisfied with SRM University’s vision and progress so far and wished for further marvels to be created.

Dr Suresh inaugurating the sub post-officeThe Minister later met with the DEANS and HODs and the reputed Ramalingaswami Fellow, DST-Inspire Fellow and faculty members who are rigorously working on several projects. The Minister was pleased to see the focus on research. He said, “The Govt of Andhra Pradesh is against of commercialization of education, but we are not against private educational institutes. It is very encouraging to see how SRM University, following the footsteps of the government, has embedded complete and inclusive education that supports equity, equality, and affordability. Industry-Academia interaction is a weak point in our pedagogical system, but it is good to see that SRM University is moulding students in a proper way to make them market-ready. The advancement of the Education sector is the dream of our Chief Minister, and many pedagogical and educational reforms are being done in order to the standardization of the Education Sector. The Management of SRM University-AP has opted for a student-centric education that follows the mandates of National Education Policy-2020.”

Dr Satya Pramod Jammy, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, SRM University AP, Andhra Pradesh developed the open-source SBLI framework dedicated to enable computing high-resolution fluid flow simulations in the supersonic regime using high-end desktop systems with GPUs. It enables users to set up the problem to be solved at a high-level with the details similar to what one sees in any textbook and the tool will automatically generate a low-level code that can run on CPUs and GPUs using the OPS library.

Dr Satya Pramod Jammy explains, “It is hosted on GitHub and is available to download free of charge under GNU GPL license (https://opensbli.github.io). I lead the development of OpenSBLI over the last four years as a part of my research. The basic organization of the classes and architecture of the tool is designed along with the automatic code generation. The tool has been transformed over the years starting with a basic version to demonstrate its ability to its current version (V2.0), that is capable of generating codes for around 27 different numerical schemes by changing one line of the setup script. A new version of the framework is under testing and a release is planned in March 2021.”

Advancing the framework, Dr Satya Pramod Jammy informed that the capabilities of the tool are being upgraded constantly. Among other renowned scientists, Dr Gary Coleman, Senior Research Scientist, Computational AeroSciences Branch, NASA Langley Research Center has been using the tool for his scientific research pursuits. Appreciating Dr Satya Pramod Jammy, Dr Coleman said, “I have found the OpenSBLI framework to be an extremely valuable tool in my recent research into the physics and modelling of high-speed wall-bounded turbulent flows. Its combination of efficiency, fidelity, and flexibility has allowed me to perform a thorough case study using local computational resources to produce a vast amount of high-quality data, which I expect will be of great utility to the research community. I am grateful to you for your role in developing this excellent resource.”

Alleviating healthcare challenges by augmenting efficacy of antibiotics

Dr Sutharsan Govindarajan, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, SRM University – AP, Andhra Pradesh received an outlay of Rs 55 lakhs by the Department of Science and Technology (DST)- Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India to advance the project “Mechanistic understanding of bacterial cytoskeleton inhibition by antibiotics and novel bacteriophage proteins”. The research grant is provided to support active researchers in undertaking research and development in the frontiers of Science and Engineering. Dr Sutharsan exclaims, “It is thrilling to see that my proposal has been accepted for funding. This is a huge recognition for the science that we do at SRM University – AP. Through this funding, I will be able to establish an independent molecular microbiology lab at the university.”

While the entire world is aggressively working to end the menace of COVID19, antimicrobial resistance has been a long-standing unsolved threat. This project is dedicated to interpreting the mechanism of inhibition of bacterial cytoskeleton by antibiotics, which has an immediate impact on the society as it strives to unravel the mystery of ‘how bacteria are able to outsmart antibiotics and survive’. In this project, Dr Sutharsan will be probing antibiotics to comprehend the response of bacteria to them. The scholar says, “Currently, antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest health care challenges of this century leading to serious clinical manifestations. In countries like India, the situation is alarming since nearly 58 thousand new-born babies are dying every year due to bacteria escaping the antibiotics.”

Dr Sutharsan informs, “Largely, solutions to antibiotic resistance problem is directed towards discovering new antibiotics and therapies. However, there are hundreds of existing antibiotics that could be made more effective to kill bacteria. But these antibiotics are not considered as compelling options in the market due to their poor efficiency or lack of understanding. In this project, we will investigate one such antibiotic and attempt to assess its response to the killing agent. By understanding how bacteria escape the antibiotic action, we hope to find effective strategies to combat them.”

The laboratory of phage-bacteria interaction will be established and led by Dr Sutharsan at SRM University-AP, where he will be relentlessly working on various aspects of bacteriology including antibiotic resistance, bacteriophage engineering, and therapy. Sharing his plans of advancing the work, Dr Sutharsan says “In the near future, we are planning to connect with the clinicians and explore the possibility of taking our research findings to actual patients – a bench to bedside model of research.”

Prof Siva Sankar Y, Professor & Head, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh published a research paper titled “60 GHz common gate single stage current reuse cascode LNA topology for high data rate applications” in the Journal of Electronic Materials. In the recent era, wireless communication has become essential in the lives of mankind. The data transfer rate of wireless systems varies from a few kilobits per second (kbps) to gigabits per second (Gbps), and the distance of communication supported by these technologies fluctuate from a few meters to kilometers.

Gbps transmission entails the transfer of huge data between different devices such as high-definition (HD) video cameras, smartphones, HD set-top boxes, HD DVD players, and high-definition printers. Realizing Gpbs transmission requires operating frequency of several tens of GHz to hundreds of GHz. To meet the escalating demand for high data transfer rates, wireless technologies are penetrating the millimeter wave technology domain, which supports transmission data rates up to Gbps within small distances.

Layout of the proposed circuitMillimeter (mm) wave spectrum can be used for such high-speed wireless communication. Dr Siva Sankar informs, “One of the major challenges in realizing mm wave based transceivers is the design of the CMOS analog RF components. In the design of CMOS RF components, power dissipation, and speed are the two important and conflicting factors that lay stringent requirements on RF design. In our work, RF component design has been used in mmWave transceivers.”

Dr Siva Sankar and his research group developed a high frequency, low noise LNA that can be used in mmWave transceivers to facilitate high data transfer rates. The professor explains, “The designed LNA can be used in mm wave transceivers. The speed (operating frequency) of these components is chosen to be 60GHz because the spectrum around 60GHz is available for unlicensed operation in many regulatory domains including the USA, Japan, Canada and Australia.”. Advancing the research, Dr Siva Sankar and his research group will focus on high speed RF components such as mixers, PLL, and others to realize 60 GHz.