The Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics was founded in 1988.
The department combines two educational and scientific schools:
– Many years of experience in intensive scientific activity and close cooperation of the teaching staff and research staff with leading developers of electronics and solar energy products based on semiconductor compositions in Western Europe led to the creation at NTU “KhPI” of a scientific school for the development of physical foundations of modern materials science in relation to film layers and layered heterosystems based on semiconductor compositions, which ensure high reliability, durability and efficiency of modern microelectronics and solar energy products. The first graduating department, which trained specialists in the field of microelectronics and solar energy (currently specialty 176 “Micro- and nanosystems engineering”).
– The Scientific School of Radiophysics was founded in 1971. Since 1989, the department has been training higher education applicants in the specialty “Radiophysics and Electronics” (currently specialty 105 “Applied Physics and Nanomaterials”). In order to improve the quality of training of specialists, the Scientific and Educational Center “Ionosphere” was created at the department in cooperation with the Institute of the Ionosphere of the Ministry of Education and Science and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The scientific directions of the school are aimed at developing equipment for radiophysical research of near space, real-time digital signal processing systems and ionosphere models based on data obtained by the incoherent scattering method.
Given the current situation in the electronics and energy sector and the development of the military-industrial complex in Ukraine, there is an increased demand for specialists and scientific research in the field of solar energy for emergencies, as well as in the field of developing protected micro- and radioelectronics. These trends have become the basis for the creation of a powerful department capable of responding to the challenges of modernity and training highly qualified specialists for the modern needs of Ukraine.
Since 2013, the department has been actively implementing state research topics, grants of the National Defense University and international projects.
Since 2016, the head of the department has been Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences Zaitsev Roman Valentinovich.
The Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics (formerly Physical Materials Science for Electronics and Solar Energy) was founded in 1988 on the initiative of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Boyko Boris Timofiyovych.
During the existence of the department in the field of electronics based on thin-film models, the following have been developed: new technological methods for manufacturing reliable capacitors based on tantalum and niobium, an element for protecting electronic circuits from impulse voltage drops, which has no analogues in the world, a resistive gas sensor of adsorption-semiconductor type for environmental analysis, etc. In the field of photovoltaic solar energy converters, in cooperation with the Scientific Research Technological Institute of Instrumentation (SRITI, Kharkiv) within the framework of the space program of Ukraine, new design and technological solutions for the manufacture of monocrystalline silicon solar cells for Ukrainian spacecraft with an efficiency of 14% were developed, a technology for the manufacture of CdTe-based solar cells with an efficiency of 5-6% for microwatt electronics was developed, a new type of ion-molecular source with partially ionized flows for vacuum forming thin films of semiconductor compounds for photovoltaic solar energy converters was developed and implemented in practice, etc.
Within the framework of international cooperation, the department actively participated in the scientific program INTAS 94-3998 “High-efficiency thin-film solar cells based on chalcogenide semiconductors” (1995-1997). The Department was the only representative of Ukraine in this project and collaborated with such leading scientific institutions as the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire d’Electrochimic et de Chimic Analytique, Paris, France; Universidad Cjmplutense, Facultad de Ciencias Fisicas, Madrid, Spain; Ioffe Physic-Technical institute, Laboratory of Physical-Chemical Properties of Semiconductors, St. Petersburg, Russia; Institute of Physics of Solid and Semiconductors of the Belarussian Academy of Sciences, Semiconductors Physics, Minsk, Belarus.
The Department of MNE within the framework of the Swiss National Science Foundation has been collaborating with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich since 1997. Together with this scientific institution within the framework of an international partnership in 1997-1998, the Department actively participated in the SNS-CEEC/NIS IP Project 7IPO5129 “Thin-film solar cells based on semiconductor compounds” for 18 months (1997-1998). The Department of MNE was the only representative of Ukraine in this project and collaboratedcooperated with such leading scientific institutions as the Central Laboratory on Solar Energy and New Materials, Sofia, Bulgaria; Institute of Physics Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
In December 1995, the Center for Solar Energy (Stuttgart, Germany) proposed in a letter from the head of the Center, Prof. H. Albrecht, to the rector of the Kharkiv State Polytechnic University, Prof. Y.T. Kostenko, to consider the Department of MNE a member of the Center for Solar Energy and to become its authorized representative in Ukraine. The Center’s proposal was gratefully accepted by the rector and the Academic Council of the university.
In 1997-1999, the Department actively participated in the International Program INTAS 96-0206 “Production of thin films of chalcopyrites and solar cells by activation methods.” The project coordinator was the University of Stuttgart (Germany). Since 2001, the Department of MNE has been actively participating in the implementation of the Tasis TSP/UK/0003/102 project “Creation of a Center for the Use of Solar Energy in the City of Odesa”.
Since the spring of 2009, Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences Khrypunov Gennady Semenovich has become the head of the department. On his initiative in 2008, the department won a grant for laboratory research and from 2009 to 2011 successfully completed the International Project of the Ukrainian Science and Technology Center “Development of a Laboratory Technology for the Production of Flexible Solar Cells Based on Cadmium Telluride”. From 2011 to 2012. The departments of micro- and nanoelectronics and industrial and biomedical electronics, as a result of the work carried out under the State Order DZ 477 (2011-2012) on the topic “Development of a photovoltaic installation based on multi-junction silicon solar cells with vertical diode cells”, created a pilot industrial sample of such an installation.
In the 1960s, electronics in the form of devices and methods began to be rapidly introduced into various branches of science and technology, ensuring increased efficiency of production and scientific research. This required appropriate training of engineering personnel, who were graduated from KhPI. Therefore, on the initiative of the rector, Professor M. F. Semko, in 1971 the department “Radio Electronics” was organized at the institute, which became part of the faculty “Automatics and Instrumentation”.
The task of the department was to teach the basics of electronics, as well as radio engineering disciplines to students of the mechanical engineering, chemical and engineering-physical faculties. The basis of the department was a team of teachers and employees of the radio engineering faculty. The head of the department was Associate Professor, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences V. I. Taran, who headed the research laboratory engaged in the study of the ionosphere (NDL RE).
The department “Radio Electronics” in a limited period of time carried out extensive organizational and methodological work to prepare the educational process in new conditions: educational and work plans were developed and agreed with the faculties, lecture courses were prepared, and conditions for laboratory workshops were provided. It is necessary to note the great assistance provided to the department by the leadership of the Research Laboratory of Radioelectronics, which transferred a sufficient amount of modern measuring equipment and materials for the educational process.
Subsequently, the cooperation of the department and the Research Laboratory of Radioelectronics (later transformed into the Institute of the Ionosphere) continued to develop successfully and led to their unification into the educational and scientific complex “Ionosphere”. A feature of the implementation of scientific work of the Department of “Radioelectronics” was the involvement of talented students in scientific work, which became an integral part of the educational process.
In 1986, the computerization of the educational process began at the department, which later allowed to obtain electronic versions of lecture notes and other methodological materials, reduce the time for computational and graphic work and supplemented the traditional laboratory practical. To date, the department uses demonstration, laboratory and educational programs compiled by the teachers of the department.
In 1989, the department changed its status from general technical to specialized, starting the recruitment, training and graduation of radio physics engineers. This led to a restructuring of the department’s work due to an increase in the number of lecture courses, the complication of laboratory practical work and the emergence of new types of educational process (course and diploma design, industrial practice, etc.). The department paid great attention to the development of practical skills of future engineers.
With the change in the status of the department, the staff of pedagogical and teaching and support staff increased. A significant role in this was played by the educational and scientific complex “Ionosphere”, which combined the educational process with scientific and research work. This allowed to significantly increase the level of training of the department’s graduates, the first graduation of which took place in 1994.
In 1991, the Scientific and Research Institute of the Ionosphere of the NAS and MES of Ukraine was established. In 2001, the science center, called the “Ionospheric Probe”, was recognized as a National Heritage Site.
The study of the ionosphere is fundamental in nature and is of great importance for global research and is carried out in cooperation with world scientific centers. Cooperation with leading world organizations has had a positive impact on the development of research and the increase in the authority of the Department of Radio Electronics and the Institute of the Ionosphere at the international level. Currently, the Scientific and Educational Center “Ionosphere”, which includes the Institute of the Ionosphere and the Department of Radio Electronics, is one of the leading domestic centers for the study of near-Earth space.
In 2008, the Department of Radio Electronics was headed by Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences I. F. Domnin.
In 2009, the department began training engineers in the field of “Computer Engineering” with a specialty of “Specialized Computer Systems” at the Faculty of “Automation and Instrumentation”, and in 2010, training specialists in the same specialty at the German Technical Faculty.