Paul A. Kohl
Regents' Professor, Institute Fellow, & Hercules, Inc./Gossage Chair
Contact Information
Building: Bunger-Henry
Office:
386
Phone: 404.894.2893
Fax: 404.894.2866
email
Mailing Address
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Chemical &
Biomolecular Engineering
311 Ferst Drive, N.W.
Atlanta, GA 30332-0100
Links
Paul A. Kohl
Education
B.S. 1974, Bethany College
Ph.D. 1978, University of Texas
Bio
Paul Kohl received a B.S. degree from Bethany College in 1974 and Ph.D. from The University of Texas, both in Chemistry. After graduation, Dr. Kohl was employed at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ from 1978 to 1989. During that time, he was involved in new chemical processes for silicon and compound semiconductor devices and their packaging. In 1989, he joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, where he is currently a Regents' Professor. He is also the Editor of Journal of The Electrochemical Society and past founding editor of Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters.
Research Interests
Dr. Kohl's research interests include new materials and processes for advanced interconnects for integrated circuits, and electrochemical energy devices for energy conversion and storage. Dr. Kohl is the Director of the MARCO Interconnect Focus Center whose goal is to create new technological solutions for interconnect in Giga-scale integrated circuits. He also has extensive programs in micro-fuel cells, for self-powered integrated circuits, and the use of ionic liquids in electrochemical devices.
New Materials and Processing for Microelectronic Devices and Packaging
Ultra-low dielectric constant insulators are needed in electronics devices. New materials and processes have been created for fabrication of embedding air-isolation in electronic and optical devices. Air encapsulated and porous structures provide mechanically compliant, low capacitance interconnects. Other projects include electroless copper plating, rapid microwave processing, investigation of cryogenic cooling, and novel interconnection materials.
Room Temperarure Ionic Liquids
Room temperature ionic liquids provide high conductivity, wide electrochemical stability, and zero vapor pressure. New ionic liquids are simple to produce and can be used as electrolytes in batteries and for the deposition of metals (e.g. sodium, lithium, copper, aluminum).
Micro Fuel Cells
Thin-film micro fuel cells using concentrated methanol as the fuel souce, have extremely high energy density. New membranes have been developed which allow the integration of these power sources directly into electronic devices. The membranes have low methanol cross over, which permits the use of highly concentrated fuels. Thin-film cells have designed for powering small electronic devices, such as wireless sensors. The cells overcome problems with traditional PEM fuel cells. The cofabrication of the micro fuel cell with the electronic device enables the smallest form-factor for the self-powered electronic device.
Interconnect Focus Center
The Interconnect Focus Center (IFC) conducts research to discover and invent new electrical, optical and thermal interconnect solutions that will meet or exceed ITRS projections and enable hyper-integration of heterogeneous components for future terascale systems.