Khaira hails from Karnal, India. He graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, with a BE (honors) in chemical engineering in Autumn 2009. From August 2009 to June 2010, he worked at Mercedes Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI) as a trainee engineer. During his tenure at MBRDI, Gurdaman was part of fuel cell research and modeling team where he worked on the mathematical model development of fuel cell humidifiers and diesel oxidation catalysts. He then attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in Autumn 2010 and joined the research group of Professor Juan de Pablo. He is expected to get his MS from UW-Madison in 2013 and become a PhD candidate at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.
The semiconductor industry is moving towards smaller circuit dimensions and feature sizes as guided by the Moore’s Law. Fabrication of circuits is traditionally done by photolithography, which uses light to create patterns on photo resists. However, due to the diffraction of light, these techniques are problematic below ~20 nm feature size. Block copolymers self-assembly have potential to overcome this technical barrier and is a promising approach for fabrication of next generation of electronics circuits. Joining two or more chemically incompatible polymer chains forms block copolymers. Due to the repulsion between the polymer blocks they tend to phase separate at the nanoscale making well defined geometries like lines, dots etc. Changing the block copolymer composition and molecular weight as well as other properties can change the type and size of the domains.
In order to direct the defect free self-assembly of block copolymers over large wafer area, various guiding fields e.g chemical patterns, graphoepitaxy, solvent annealing etc. are employed. Gurdaman uses molecular simulations to study directed self assembly (DSA) of block copolymers with various guiding fields. He is especially interested in the phase behavior of BCPs in presence of solvents of varying selectivity. He specializes in Monte Carlo simulations of coarse-grained polymer molecules. Using simulations, Gurdaman is trying to predict the optimum operating conditions (solvent type, vapor pressure, etc.) for defect-free assembly of BCPs in presence of solvents.
Optimizing self-consistent field theory block copolymer models with X-ray metrology
Hannon, Adam F., et al. "Optimizing self-consistent field theory block copolymer models with X-ray metrology." Molecular systems design & engineering 3.2 (2018): 376-389.
Derivation of multiple covarying material and process parameters using physics-based modeling of X-ray data
Khaira, Gurdaman, et al. "Derivation of multiple covarying material and process parameters using physics-based modeling of X-ray data." Macromolecules 50.19 (2017): 7783-7793.
Derivation of Multiple Covarying Material and Process Parameters Using Physics-Based Modeling of X-ray Data
Gurdaman Khaira, Manolis Doxastakis, Alec Bowen, Jiaxing Ren, Hyo Seon Suh, Tamar Segal-Peretz, Xuanxuan Chen, Chun Zhou, Adam F. Hannon, Nicola J. Ferrier, Venkatram Vishwanath, Daniel F. Sunday, Roel Gronheid, R. Joseph Kline, Juan J. de Pablo, Paul F. Nealey. Multiple Covarying Material and Process Parameters Using Physics-Based Modeling of X-ray Data. Macromolecules. 7793. Vol. 50, Pg. 7783.
Quantitative three-dimensional characterization of block copolymer directed self-assembly on combined chemical and topographical prepatterned templates
Segal-Peretz, Tamar, et al. "Quantitative three-dimensional characterization of block copolymer directed self-assembly on combined chemical and topographical prepatterned templates." ACS nano 11.2 (2017): 1307-1319.
Quantitative Three-Dimensional Characterization of Block Copolymer Directed Self-Assembly on Combine
Turning statistical physics models into materials design engines
Miskin, Marc Z., et al. "Turning statistical physics models into materials design engines." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113.1 (2016): 34-39.
Molecular pathways for defect annihilation in directed self-assembly
Hur, SM; Thapar, V; Ramirez-Hernandez, A; Khaira, G; Segal-Peretz, T; Rincon-Delgadillo, PA; Li, WH; Muller, M; Nealey, PF; de Pablo, JJ. Molecular pathways for defect annihilation in directed self-assembly. PNAS. 2015. Vol. 112, Pg. 14144–14149.
Molecular pathways for defect annihilation in directed self-assembly
Hur, Su-Mi, et al. "Molecular pathways for defect annihilation in directed self-assembly." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112.46 (2015): 14144-14149.
Simulation of Defect Reduction in Block Copolymer Thin Films by Solvent Annealing
Hur, Su-Mi, et al. "Simulation of defect reduction in block copolymer thin films by solvent annealing." ACS Macro Letters 4.1 (2014): 11-15.
Evolutionary Optimization of Directed Self-Assembly of Triblock Copolymers on Chemically Patterned Substrates
G.S. Khaira, J. Qin, G. P. Grant, S. Xiong, L. Wan, R. Ruiz, H. M. Jaeger, P. F. Nealey, and J. J. de Pablo. Evolutionary Optimization of DSA of Triblock Copolymers. ACS Macro Letters. 2014. Vol. 3, Pg. 747-752.