Duke’s Semiconductor Game Changers: Aaron Franklin

In January 2026, a landmark gift from the Lamond Family named the Pierre R. Lamond Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the Pratt School of Engineering. The $57 million in total investment strengthens Duke ECE’s ability to shape the next era of computing technologies and fuel the department’s rapid rise in research and academic distinction.

The department’s namesake, Pierre R. Lamond, helped pioneer the semiconductor industry and later invested in semiconductor, systems and software companies as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

In this series, Duke Engineering highlights faculty members whose work in semiconductor‑related research is already making an impact, and who are now positioned to accelerate that work through the transformative commitment from the Lamond Family.

Aaron Franklin is the associate dean for faculty affairs and the Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. Distinguished Professor of ECE. His research focuses on the use of 1D and 2D nanomaterials for high-performance nanoscale devices, low-cost printed and recyclable electronics, and biomedical sensing systems.

How does your research contribute to advances in semiconductor technology?

My research group explores nanomaterials as disruptive complements or replacements for conventional silicon technology. We focus on two ends of the transistor spectrum: high-performance nanoscale transistors and printed thin-film transistors.

For high-performance applications such as computing and data centers, we study two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors. These nanomaterials have some electrical properties that are similar to silicon but are comparatively stable at thicknesses of only a few atomic layers, enabling more aggressive transistor scaling than is possible with silicon devices. Nanoscale transistors from 2D materials also offer the potential for reduced operating voltage, addressing the longstanding challenge of power consumption in all types of electronics, from mobile devices to data centers.

At the other end of the spectrum, our work on thin-film transistors targets applications such as flat-panel displays and internet-of-things devices. We use additive manufacturing approaches, including a variety of printing technologies (e.g., aerosol jet, inkjet, capillary flow), to fabricate devices from nanomaterial-based inks, particularly semiconducting carbon nanotubes. Recently, we demonstrated fully functional thin-film transistors printed on paper or plastic substrates, with the additional ability to completely recycle the printed nanomaterials into new inks for reuse. This closed-loop approach has the potential to significantly reduce the energy and environmental footprint of thin-film transistor manufacturing.

What is one major technical challenge your work is helping to address?

A major technical challenge for thin-film transistors is achieving printed feature sizes below one micrometer (micron). Reaching this scale would make additively manufactured devices more competitive with state-of-the-art silicon or metal-oxide technologies that drive the multi-billion-dollar flat-panel display industry. We recently made progress toward this goal by using a new capillary-flow printing technique to realize submicron dimensions in printed carbon nanotube transistors. Building on this advance, we are now focused on further improving device performance through new printable electronic materials, refined printing processes and optimized device architectures.

What new applications could be unlocked with improved semiconductor hardware in the near future?

Our printed thin-film transistor work has the potential to revolutionize flat-panel display manufacturing, including reshoring production of these critical components to the United States. Today, nearly 100% of display manufacturing occurs in East Asia, representing a market approaching $200 billion. A scalable, additive nanomaterial-based approach could fundamentally reshape this industry. Just as importantly, printing offers dramatic improvements in environmental sustainability by reducing material waste, energy consumption and overall manufacturing footprint.

In the high-performance transistor area, if 2D semiconductors enable a true continuation of Moore’s Law through further transistor scaling and increased chip-level packing density, the impact would be profound. Advancing scaling would unlock new capabilities in computationally intensive applications ranging from artificial intelligence to large-scale data processing. For this reason, nearly every major semiconductor company is invested in research on 2D semiconductor technologies, including Intel, TSMC, Samsung and imec.

How has Duke ECE built momentum in semiconductor research in recent years?

The biggest boost to our semiconductor research has been the hiring of top-notch young faculty. Tania Roy and Harry Wang have brought a vibrancy of ideas and capabilities that have elevated the work we are collectively pursuing in this field. We’ve also benefitted from attracting exceptional graduate students—something made possible by the program’s years of sustained success. At the same time, we are seeing growing interest from Duke undergraduates in semiconductor research, and they are making increasingly meaningful contributions to our efforts.

Why is this moment critical for investment and growth in semiconductor research?

I often remind students that we don’t really know what a world without continued advancement in semiconductor technology would look like. We understand life before transistors sparked the digital revolution, but since the first commercial CPU chips (the Intel 4004 in 1971), we’ve experienced steady progress driven by Moore’s Law. Virtually every major technological advancement of the past 50 years has been enabled by improvements in semiconductor technology. It’s worth asking: What would we not have achieved if investment in this field had stalled? Would you give up advanced medical imaging, mobile devices, AI systems, autonomous transportation or robotics? Our reluctance to lose these capabilities underscores why sustained investment and growth in semiconductor research remain so essential. Untold future innovations depend on the continued advancement of semiconductor technology.