Contacts:

gianfranco.cerofolini@st.com gianfranco.cerofolini@fastwebnet.it

Gianfranco (“GF”) Cerofolini (degree in Physics from the University of Milan, 1970) is chief scientist in STMicroelectronics and visiting researcher at the University of Milano—Bicocca.  His interests are currently addressed to the post-silicon technology, the physical limits of miniaturization, and the ‘emergence’ of higher-level phenomena from the underlying lower-level substrate (measurement in quantum mechanics, life in biological systems, etc.).

Although his research activity has been carried out in the industry (vacuum: SAES Getters, telecommunication: Telettra, chemistry and energetics: ENI, integrated circuits: STMicroelectronics), he has had frequent collaborations with academic centers  (University of Lublin,  IMEC, Stanford University, City College of New York, several Italian Universities)  and has been lecturer in a few Universities (Pisa, Modena and Polytechnic of Milan).

His research has covered several areas: adsorption, biophysics, CMOS processing (oxidation, diffusion, ion implantation, gettering), electronic and optical materials, theory of acidity, and nanoelectronics.  

A gettering technique of widespread use in microelectronics, the preparation and characterization of ideal silicon p-n junctions and the discovery of a mechanism therein  of pure generation without recombination, the theoretical description of layer-by-layer oxidation at room temoerature of silicon, the development of original mathematical techniques for the description of adsorption on heterogeneous or soft  surfaces, and the identification of a strategy for molecular electronics via a conservative extension of the existing microelectronic technology, are among his achievements.

The results of his activity have been published in approximately 300 articles, chapters to books, and encyclopaedic items, and in a score of patents.