Project description
Hybrid spin wave-CMOS for computing systems
The rapid advancement of electronic devices and computing is constantly pushing for smaller and smaller devices. However, the spread of this trend is limited by increased power density and heating in chips. This is why there’s also a push for ultralow-power high-performance computing technologies that optimise their power-to-performance area. In this context, the EU-funded SPIDER project will satisfy this need by developing a novel hybrid spin wave and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) computing system. This technology has the potential to reduce power and area consumption in computing, along with CMOS chips required for its operation. It will lay the foundation for improved spin wave technologies and also provide low power and area computing.
Objective
In the future, the miniaturisation of electronic devices– epitomised by Moore’s law – will be progressively limited by increasing power densities and the associated chip heating. Moreover, autonomous microelectronic applications, for example for the Internet of Things, demand high performance at ultralow power. Therefore, much research has recently focused on disruptive computing technologies that limit power consumption and optimise performance per circuit area. Spin wave computing is a disruptive spintronic technology that uses the interference of spin waves for computation and has considerable potential for power and area reduction per computing throughput. Despite much recent progress in the realisation of spin wave logic gates, no concept for a complete computing system exists today that is based only on spin waves. Thus, to advance from devices to systems, spin wave devices need to be complemented by CMOS in a hybrid spin wave–CMOS system. Using an interdisciplinary approach joining partners with expertise in materials science, physics, device manufacturing, electrical engineering, circuit design, and packaging, SPIDER targets the demonstration of a complete operational hybrid spin wave–CMOS computing system. To date, complex spin wave circuits are yet to be realised. SPIDER targets to fill this gap by developing spin wave logic circuits based on majority gates. To embed these circuits into a CMOS environment, SPIDER will design mixed signal CMOS chips that can drive spin wave circuits and read out computation results. The spin wave and CMOS chips will then be combined on an interposer to obtain the final hybrid system. This work will pave the way towards viable spin wave chips and provide a first benchmark of spin wave computing at the system level. Based on the results, SPIDER will then develop a roadmap to advance spin wave technology to compete with CMOS in technology nodes below 1 nm.
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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
3001 Leuven
Belgium