Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D.

Commonwealth Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering VCU College of Engineering

  • Richmond VA

Professor Bandyopadhyay has authored and co-authored over 400 research publications

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Secure communication technology research at VCU College of Engineering receives Commonwealth Cyber Initiative support

The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative’s (CCI) Northern Virginia Node recently awarded a $75,000 grant to Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) College of Engineering, to develop an ultra-subwavelength microwave polarization switch for secure communication. The one-year grant comes through the Cyber Acceleration, Translation and Advanced Prototyping for University Linked Technology (CATAPULT) Fund. It supports Bandyopadhyay’s project, “An ultra-subwavelength microwave polarization switch for secure communication,” which develops a nanomagnet-based antenna integrated with a piezoelectric component. This system can switch the polarization of electromagnetic beams at specific microwave frequencies to enable secret communication between two points without traditional encryption methods. “Secret communication sheds the need for encryption,” Bandyopadhyay said. “Any cryptography can be broken, but this scheme does not use cryptography for secret communication and does not suffer from this vulnerability. It is also entirely based on hardware and cannot be hacked.” The technology offers significant benefits for banking, healthcare and government communications where data security is critical because a hardware-based approach makes it immune to software hacking. Another result of the research is antenna miniaturization, with antenna sizes several orders of magnitude smaller than the radiated wavelength. This addresses limitations in algorithms, physical size and power requirements that current secure communication systems face. Bandyopadhyay is collaborating with two researchers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech and Erdem Topsakal, Ph.D., senior associate dean for strategic initiatives and professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at VCU. Students involved in the project will be trained in antenna engineering, microwaves and communication engineering, gaining skills increasingly vital in today’s connected world.

Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D.

Biography

Supriyo Bandyopadhyay is Commonwealth Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. He received a B. Tech degree in Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India; an M.S degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois; and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He spent one year as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana (1986-87) and then nine years on the faculty of University of Notre Dame. In 1996, he joined University of Nebraska-Lincoln as Professor of Electrical Engineering, and then in 2001, moved to Virginia Commonwealth University as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with a courtesy appointment as Professor of Physics. He directs the Quantum Device Laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Research in the laboratory has been frequently featured in national and international media. Its educational activities were highlighted in a pilot study conducted by the ASME to assess nanotechnology pipeline challenges. The laboratory has graduated many outstanding researchers who have won numerous national and international awards.

Prof. Bandyopadhyay has authored and co-authored over 400 research publications and presented over 150 invited or keynote talks at conferences and colloquia/seminars across five continents. He is the author of three popular textbooks, including the only English language textbook on spintronics. He is currently a member of the editorial boards of ten international journals and served in the editorial boards of ten others in the past. He has served in various committees of ~100 international conferences and workshops. He is the founding Chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Technical Committee on Spintronics and past-chair of the Technical Committee on Compound Semiconductor Devices and Circuits. He was an IEEE Electron Device Society Distinguished Lecturer (2005-2012) and an IEEE Nanotechnology Council Distinguished Lecturer (2016, 2017). He is a past Vice President of the IEEE Nanotechnology Council in charge of conferences (2006-2007) and later in charge of publications (2020-2022). Prof. Bandyopadhyay is the winner of many awards and distinctions.

Industry Expertise

Education/Learning
Research

Areas of Expertise

Self-assembly of Regimented Nanostructure Arrays
Spintronics
Quantum Devices
Hot Carrier Transport in Nanostructures
Nanoelectronics
Quantum Computing
Nanomagnetism
Computing Paradigms
Optical Properties of Nanostructures
Coherent spin transport in Nanowires for Sensing and Information Processing
Nanowire-based Room Temperature Infrared Detectors

Accomplishments

University Award of Excellence

2017-08-23

Virginia Commonwealth University faculty award for performing in a superior manner in teaching, scholarly activity and service. One award is given to one faculty member in the University in any year. It is one of the highest awards the University can bestow on a faculty member. Dr. Bandyopadhyay is the only recipient of this award in the history of the College of Engineering.

Virginia's Outstanding Scientist

2016-02-15

Named by the Governor of the State of Virginia, 2016. One of two recipients in the State of Virginia in 2016. This award is given across all fields of engineering, science, mathematics and medicine.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award, VCU

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015. One of two such awards given in the department's history.

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Education

Purdue University

Ph.D.

Electrical Engineering

Southern Illinois University

M.S.

Electrical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

B.Tech

Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering

Affiliations

  • American Physical Society
  • The Electrochemical Society
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: Past Vice President of Nanotechnology Council, Past Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Past Chair of the Technical Committee on Compound Semiconductor Devices and Circuits, Founding Chair of the Technical Committee on Spintronics
  • Institute of Physics (UK): Editorial Board Member of the journals Nanotechnology and Nano Futures

Media Appearances

Gov. Northam recognizes Outstanding Faculty Award recipients

Augusta Free Press  print

2018-03-02

Supriyo Bandyopadhyay is commonwealth professor of electrical and computer engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University where he has worked for 17 years as director of the Quantum Device Laboratory. Bandyopadhyay was named Virginia’s Outstanding Scientist by Governor Terry McAuliffe in 2016.

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Governor Northam recognizes outstanding faculty awards recipients

Virginia Secretary of Education  online

2018-03-01

RICHMOND - Governor Ralph Northam today recognized 12 Virginia educators as recipients of the 32nd annual Outstanding Faculty Award for excellence in teaching, research, and public service. The annual Outstanding Faculty Award program is administered by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and sponsored by Dominion Energy.

“These outstanding educators have devoted their lives to research and teaching.” said Governor Northam. “Each has a proven track record of academic excellence and giving back to their communities. I am pleased to support these wonderful Virginia teachers and it is my privilege to recognize each of them with the Outstanding Faculty Award.”

The recipients, all faculty members from colleges and universities across the Commonwealth, were honored today during an awards ceremony at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.

“The 12 educators that we are recognizing play a pivotal role in the lives and successes of the people they teach and inspire,” said Secretary of Education Atif Qarni. “With this award we thank them for their service to students, to their institutions, and to the Commonwealth.”

“We are fortunate that Virginia is home to one of the world’s great systems of higher education,” said Peter Blake, director of SCHEV. “The Outstanding Faculty Awards recognize faculty members who have dedicated their lives to research, teaching, and mentorship. Their work improves the lives of everyone in the Commonwealth.”

The awards are being made through a $75,000 grant from the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Energy and the sponsor of the Outstanding Faculty Awards for the 14th year.

“Dominion Energy is pleased to partner with SCHEV once again to honor Virginia’s outstanding educators,” said Hunter A. Applewhite, president of the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation. “Every year, I am impressed and humbled by the dedication shown by these teachers and researchers to guide and inspire our young people to excel in the classroom and in life.”

VCU Engineering Professor receives Governor's highest award for Teaching

Virginia Commonwealth University  online

2018-02-07

Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D., Commonwealth Professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering, has been named a recipient of the 2018 State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award

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Research Focus

Spintronics

Nanostructures

2017-01-03

Spintronics is the science and technology of storing, sensing, processing and communicating information with the quantum mechanical spin properties of electrons.

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Straintronics

Nanomagnets

2017-01-03

Straintronics is the technology of rotating the magnetization direction of nanomagnets with electrically generated mechanical stress. It has applications in extremely energy-efficient Boolean and non-Boolean computing.

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Infrared photodetection

Nanowires

2017-01-03

Infrared photodetectors have applications in night vision, collision avoidance systems, healthcare, mine detection, monitoring of global warming, forensics, etc. Room temperature detection of infrared light is enabled via quantum engineering in nanowires and by exploiting spin properties of electrons.

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Patents

Magneto-elastic non-volatile multiferroic logic and memory with ultralow energy dissipation

9379162

2016-06-28

Memory cells, non-volatile logic gates, and combinations thereof have magneto-tunneling junctions (MTJs) which are switched using potential differences across a piezoelectric layer in elastic contact with a magnetostrictive nanomagnet of an MTJ. One or more pairs of electrodes are arranged about the MTJ for supplying voltage across the piezoelectric layer for switching. A permanent magnetic field may be employed to change the positions of the stable magnetic orientations of the magnetostrictive nanomagnet. Exemplary memory cells and universal non-volatile logic gates show dramatically improved performance characteristics, particularly with respect to energy dissipation and error-resilience, over existing methods and architectures for switching MTJs such as spin transfer torque (STT) techniques.

Room temperature nanowire IR, visible and UV photodetectors

8946678

2015-02-03

Room temperature IR and UV photodetectors are provided by electrochemical self-assembly of nanowires. The detectivity of such IR detectors is up to ten times better than the state of the art. Broad peaks are observed in the room temperature absorption spectra of 10-nm diameter nanowires of CdSe and ZnS at photon energies close to the bandgap energy, indicating that the detectors are frequency selective and preferably detect light of specific frequencies. Provided is a photodetector comprising: an aluminum substrate; a layer of insulator disposed on the aluminum substrate and comprising an array of columnar pores; a plurality of semiconductor nanowires disposed within the pores and standing vertically relative to the aluminum substrate; a layer of nickel disposed in operable communication with one or more of the semiconductor nanowires; and wire leads in operable communication with the aluminum substrate and the layer of nickel for connection with an electrical circuit.

Planar multiferroic/magnetostrictive nanostructures as memory elements, two-stage logic gates and four-state logic elements for information processing

8921962

2014-12-30

A magnetostrictive-piezoelectric multiferroic single- or multi-domain nanomagnet whose magnetization can be rotated through application of an electric field across the piezoelectric layer has a structure that can include either a shape-anisotropic mangnetostrictive nanomagnet with no magnetocrystalline anisotropy or a circular nanomagnet with biaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy with dimensions of nominal diameter and thickness. This structure can be used to write and store binary bits encoded in the magnetization orientation, thereby functioning as a memory element, or perform both Boolean and non-Boolean computation, or be integrated with existing magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) technology to perform a read operation by adding a barrier layer for the MTJ having a high coercivity to serve as the hard magnetic layer of the MTJ, and electrical contact layers of a soft material with small Young's modulus.

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Research Grants

Topological Nano-antennas for Secure and Compact Wireless Communication

Virginia Microelectronics Consortium $15000

2024-12-15

Beam steering in antennas consisting of ultra-sub-wavelength arrays of nanomagnets deposited on a topolgical insulator thin film.

Nano-antenna for embedded applications

Virginia Commonwealth University Commercialization Fund $50000

2025-02-13

Ultra-sub-wavelngth antennas based on spin injection and the spin Hall effect.

Quantum enabled antennas for secure communication

Virginia Tech $5000

2025-07-01

To develop an antenna employing topological insulators for beam steering

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Courses

EGRE 620: Electron Theory of Solids

Introduces graduate students to quantum theory of solids with emphasis on applications in solid state devices.

EGRE 621: Introduction to Spintronics

Introduces advanced graduate students to various facets of spintronics, spin physics, spin devices and elements of spin based quantum computing.

EGRE 610: Research Practices in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Introduces graduate students to grant writing, paper writing and perfects their skills in oral presentations.

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Selected Articles

Ternary stochastic neuron-implemented with a single strained magnetostrictive nanomagnet

Nanotechnology, 36, 125201 (2025)

Rahnuma Rahman and Supriyo Bandyopadhyay

2025-03-01

Stochastic neurons are extremely efficient hardware for solving a large class of problems and usually come in two varieties – 'binary' where the neuronal state varies randomly between two values of ±1 and 'analog' where the neuronal state can randomly assume any value between −1 and +1. Both have their uses in neuromorphic computing and both can be implemented with low- or zero-energy-barrier nanomagnets whose random magnetization orientations in the presence of thermal noise encode the binary or analog state variables. In between these two classes is n-ary stochastic neurons, mainly ternary stochastic neurons (TSNs) whose state randomly assumes one of three values (-1, 0, +1), which have proved to be efficient in pattern classification tasks such as recognizing handwritten digits from the MNIST data set or patterns from the CIFAR-10 data set. Here, we show how to implement a TSN with a zero-energy-barrier (shape isotropic) magnetostrictive nanomagnet subjected to uniaxial strain.

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Sensitivity of the Threshold Current for Switching of a Magnetic Tunnel Junction to Fabrication Defects and Its Application in Physical Unclonable Functions

Applied Sciences, 15, 9548 (2025)

Jacob Huber, Rahnuma Rahman and Supriyo Bandyopadhyay

2025-08-30

A physical unclonable function (PUF) leverages the unclonable random variations in device behavior due to defects incurred during manufacturing to produce a unique “biometric” that can be used for authentication. Here, we show that the threshold current for the switching of a magnetic tunnel junction via spin transfer torque is sensitive to the nature of structural defects introduced during manufacturing and hence can be the basis of a PUF. We use micromagnetic simulations to study the threshold currents for six different defect morphologies at two different temperatures to establish the viability of a PUF. We also derive the challenge–response set at the two different temperatures to calculate the inter- and intra-Hamming distances for a given challenge.

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An Ultra-Sub-Wavelength Microwave Polarization Switching Antenna for Covert Communication Implemented With Directed Surface Acoustic Waves in an Artificial Multiferroic Magnonic Crystal

Advanced Materials Technologies, e01014 (2025)

Raisa Fabiha, Erdem Topsakal, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay

2025-08-23

The ability to switch at will the polarization of a transmitted electromagnetic wave from vertical to horizontal, or vice versa, is of great technological interest because of its many applications in long distance communication (e.g., polarization division multiplexing). Binary bits can be encoded in the two orthogonal polarizations and transmitted from point to point. Polarization switches, however, are usually much larger than the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave that they transmit. Consequently, most research in this area has focused on the optical regime where the wavelength is relatively short (≈1 µm), so that the switch being much larger than the wavelength is not too inconvenient. However, this changes in the microwave regime where the wavelength is much larger (typically > 1 cm). That makes a microwave ultra-sub-wavelength polarization switch very attractive. Here, for the first time to the authors' knowledge, such a switch made of an array of magnetostrictive nanomagnets (≈100 nm lateral dimension, ≈5 nm thickness) deposited on a piezoelectric substrate to make an “artificial multiferroic magnonic crystal (AMMC)” is reported. A surface acoustic wave (SAW) launched in the substrate with suitable electrodes excites confined spin waves in the nanomagnets via phonon-magnon coupling, which then radiate electromagnetic waves in space via magnon-photon coupling. In some particular direction(s), determined by the AMMC parameters, the polarization of the beam at a given frequency can be rotated through ≈90° by switching the direction of SAW propagation in the piezoelectric substrate between two mutually orthogonal directions via activation of two different pairs of SAW launching electrodes. By aligning the transmitter and the receiver along such a direction (known only to authorized users), one can communicate covertly from point to point, without the need for encryption or cryptography. Furthermore, this attribute also makes the antenna “stealthy” since the message can be concealed from any eavesdropper whose receiver is not precisely aligned in the correct direction.

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