European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR)
Pan European Research project – developing next generation high speeed low power transistors
Electrosciences announces the start of a multinational project funded by the European Commission under the H2020 ICT Programme: PETMEM
(Piezoelectronic Transduction Memory Device).
New nanoscale electronics
“Computer clock speeds have not significantly increased since 2003, creating a challenge to invent a successor to CMOS technology able to resume the improvement in clock speed and power performance. The key requirements for a viable alternative are scalability to nanoscale dimensions – following Moore’s Law – and simultaneous reduction of line voltage in order to limit switching power. Achieving these two aims for both transistors and memory allows clock speed to again increase with dimensional scaling, a result that would have great impact across the IT industry. PETMEM is a European partnership amongst Universities, Research Institutions, SMEs and a large company that will focus on the development of new materials and characterization tools to enable the fabrication of an entirely new low-voltage, memory element. This element makes use of internal transduction in which a voltage state external to the device is converted to an internal acoustic signal that drives an insulator-metal transition. Modelling based on the properties of known materials at device dimensions on the 15 nm scale predicts that this mechanism enables device operation at voltages an order of magnitude lower than CMOS technology (power is reduced two orders) while achieving 10GHz operating speed.”
The consortium that will develop PETMEM technologies comprises 11 partners: Bio Nano Consulting (London UK), IBM Research (Zurich, Switzerland), Max Planck Institute (Dresden and Halle, Germany), Solmates (Enschede, The Netherlands), SINTEF (Oslo, Norway), National Physical Laboratory (Teddington UK), University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK), University of Gent (Gent, Belgium), Aixacct (Aachen Germany), Electrosciences Ltd (Surrey, UK) and DCA (Turku, Finland).
Electrosciences Ltd will act as the technical coordinator for the consortium.
