News: Microelectronics
10 September 2025
UMass Lowell’s Anhar Bhuiyan wins two US NSF grants worth $797,000 for gallium oxide research
The University of Massachusetts Lowell says that Electrical Engineering assistant professor Anhar Bhuiyan (who joined the faculty in fall 2023) is leading two US National Science Foundation (NSF) grants totaling $797,000 for research into next-generation power components for satellites and spacecraft — as well as for electronics on Earth.
Picture: UMass Lowell’s Electrical Engineering assistant professor Anhar Bhuiyan.
The first grant, for $200,000, supports Bhuiyan’s research into methods of producing thicker films of gallium oxide (which can handle much higher voltages than conventional materials such as silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride) and developing advanced techniques for making devices from it.
Bhuiyan will also explore new approaches to fabricating gallium oxide (Ga2O3) devices such as diodes. Fundamental research into such fabrication is an essential step to enable future manufacturing on a larger scale, he says.
“This is a unique opportunity to develop an emerging semiconductor material and devices that not only meet the needs of high-power systems here on Earth — like electric vehicles and the electrical grid — but also enable robust electronics for space, defense and nuclear applications where conventional devices simply fail,” says Bhuiyan.
In addition to its ability to handle high voltages, gallium oxide offers superior stability in extreme environments like space, including the capacity to function reliably under high temperatures and radiation, with electrical properties that can be carefully controlled to suit different applications.
“Satellites or autonomous space vehicles require very high power to operate, so we are trying to fabricate and protect those power modules with our material,” says Bhuiyan. “They need to be very small and lightweight; they also need to operate energy efficiently,” he says. “Gallium oxide technology can provide all these advantages – high energy, high power – and devices based on this are very lightweight and small.”
However, the material is not good at dissipating the heat that builds up in high-power components, damaging the device, reducing its efficiency and limiting its ability to operate in harsh environments. Bhuiyan is trying to solve that problem by adding a layer of diamond to high-voltage diodes made from gallium oxide.
“We proposed making multi-kilovolt diodes that will have enhanced thermal management by integrating diamond,” Bhuiyan says. “Diamond also could make them more radiation-tolerant.”
Bhuiyan and professor Uttam Singisetti of the State University of New York at Buffalo are both principal investigators on that research under a pair of three-year NSF grants totalling $597,000, with UMass Lowell serving as the lead institution. They will use UMass Lowell’s radiation laboratory, among other resources, to test gallium oxide under extreme conditions. They also plan to demonstrate devices that can operate reliably and efficiently in the harsh environment of space without the need for bulky external shielding.
“To support future missions in space or high-radiation environments on Earth, we need electronics that survive and keep performing at high levels,” Bhuiyan says. “That means rethinking how we build and cool these devices from the ground up.”
Both NSF-funded projects emphasize hands-on research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students at UMass Lowell. Through partnerships with local high schools, community colleges and industry, Bhuiyan and his team also plan to introduce K-12 students and members of industry to cutting-edge topics in microelectronics.
“Our research is as much about workforce development as it is about scientific discovery,” Bhuiyan says. “These technologies are at the heart of how we generate, distribute and use energy in the 21st century.”
In June, Bhuiyan won a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities, which provides seed funding for early-career faculty to pursue innovative research.
He also receives research support from Draper Laboratory, which recently selected a doctoral student in his lab, Ahmed Ibreljic, as a Draper Scholar. Ibreljic will receive full funding for his doctoral studies from Draper Laboratory, which is an anchor partner in the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor (LINC), a public–private–academic initiative on East Campus.
