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Nate Orloff (Fed)

Nate Orloff is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and an Adjunct Faculty of the University of Colorado.  Nate’s interested in materials properties from dc to daylight, and what we can do with them.  He received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland in 2010.  After postdoctoral appointments at Stanford University and then Rice University, Nate joined the Communications Technology Laboratory in 2014.  Nate’s research spans the broad topic of on-wafer measurement science from 10 Hz to 1 THz.  Selected topics include new standard reference instruments for 5G and beyond, developing the next generation of network analysis with optical frequency combs, and leveraging materials-by-design to build enabling communication technology.  If you are interested in collaborating or working with Nate please feel free to email him at orloff [at] nist.gov (orloff[at]nist[dot]gov)
 

Research Topics:

  • On-wafer standards
  • Dielectric spectroscopy
  • On-wafer devices

Postdoctoral and Graduate Research Opportunities and Topics

Selected Publications

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Department of Commerce Bronze Medal, 2020
  • American Ceramic Society Karl Schwartzwalder-Professional Achievement in Ceramic Engineering (PACE) Award, 2019
  • Senior member IEEE Society of Microwave Theory and Techniques, 2017
  • Best Speaker Award, Materials Research Society Materials Research Society. Symposium K: Oxide Nanoelectronics, 2009

Selected Professional Service

  • American Ceramic Society Electronics Division Committee, Corporate Relations Chair.
  • American Physical Society Member-At-Large for the Fellowship of Industrial and Applied Physicists
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Technical Program Committee for the International Microwave Symposium

Selected Funding

  • 2020 Innovation in Measurement Science Grant. Measuring intermolecular interactions with electric-acoustic spectroscopy, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Total award: $7,000,000
  • 2017 Innovation in Measurement Science. DC to 1 THz Large-Amplitude Optoelectronic Multitone Electrical-Signal Synthesizer, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Total award: $7,650,000.
  • 2016 Tailorable Composite Feedstock and Forming Project. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Total award: $780,000.

Patents

  • N. D. Orloff, C. J. Long, and J. Obrzut “Noncontact resonameter, process for making and use of same,” U.S. Patent No. 14/958,539.
  • C. J. Long, N. D. Orloff, E. J. Garboczi, and N. B. Popovic, “Scanning Microwave Ellipsometry, Process for Making and Use of Same,” U.S. Patent Application Number 16/864,466 (filed 5/1/2020). Under review at USPTO.

 

Publications

Electro-Optic Imaging Millimeter-Wave Propagation On-Wafer

Author(s)
Bryan Bosworth, Nick Jungwirth, Jerome Cheron, Franklyn Quinlan, Nate Orloff, Chris Long, Ari Feldman
We demonstrate an electro-optic imaging system for mmWaves propagating along a coplanar waveguide. Using dual optical frequency combs and a polarization

Quantifying the Effect of Guest Binding on Host Environment

Author(s)
Angela Stelson, Zack Fishman, Jacob Pawlik, Gosia Musial, Jim Booth, Chris Long, Kathleen Schwarz, Nate Orloff, Hugh Ryan, Angela Grommet, Jonathan Nitschke, Felix Rizzuto
The environment around a host-guest complex is defined by of intermolecular interactions between solvent molecules and counter ions. These interactions govern

Broadband Electromagnetic Properties of Engineered Flexible Absorber Materials

Author(s)
Luckshitha Suriyasena Liyanage, Connor Smith, Jacob Pawlik, Sarah Evans, Angela Stelson, Chris Long, Nate Orloff, David Arnold, Jim Booth
Flexible and stretchable materials have attracted significant interest for applications in wearable electronics and bioengineering fields. Recent developments

Measuring the permittivity tensor of anisotropic DyScO3 to 110 GHz

Author(s)
Florian Bergmann, Meagan Papac, Nick Jungwirth, Bryan Bosworth, Tomasz Karpisz, Anna Osella, Lucas Enright, Eric Marksz, Angela Stelson, Chris Long, Nate Orloff
DyScO3 (DSO) is an attractive substrate on which to grow epitaxial thin films with extraordinary materials physics. However, its highly anisotropic permittivity

Patents (2018-Present)

Scanning Microwave Ellipsometer And Performing Scanning Microwave Ellipsometry

NIST Inventors
Chris Long , Nate Orloff and Edward Garboczi
New strong, light, and compact formed carbon fiber components require shorter, higher-aspect ratio carbon fibers. Shorter carbon fibers must be aligned to realize the desired tensile strength. Before this invention, industry lacked a tool to characterize carbon fiber alignment for inline quality

Scanning Microwave Ellipsometer And Performing Scanning Microwave Ellipsometry

NIST Inventors
Chris Long , Nate Orloff and Edward Garboczi
A scanning microwave ellipsometer includes: a microwave ellipsometry test head including: a polarization controller; a transmission line; and a sensor that produces sensor microwave radiation, subjects a sample to the sensor microwave radiation, receives a sample reflected microwave radiation from
A photo of the noncntact dielectric and conductivity meter for high-throughput processing and a circuit diagram of the circuit used to track the resonant frequency and quality factor of the microwave resonator.

Noncontact Resonameter, Process for making and use of same

NIST Inventors
Jan Obrzut , Nate Orloff and Chris Long
A noncontact resonameter includes: a resonator to: produce an excitation signal including a field; subject a sample to the excitation signal; produce a first resonator signal in a presence of the sample and the excitation signal, the first resonator signal including: a first quality factor of the
Created July 30, 2019, Updated December 8, 2022