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HIGH-TC JOSEPHSON NEURONS AND SYNAPSES: TOWARDS ULTRAFAST AND ENERGY EFFICIENT SUPERCONDUCTING NEUROMORPHIC COMPUTING

Project description

New frontiers in neuromorphic computing

Neuromorphic computing seeks to replicate the brain’s efficiency and capabilities, but current technologies struggle with speed and energy consumption. With this in mind, the EIC-funded JOSEPHINE project aims to revolutionise this field by developing high-temperature Josephson junctions (JJs) that function as artificial neurons and synapses. These innovative JJs promise faster, more energy-efficient neural networks, integrating sensitivity to light, magnetic, and electric fields. By employing strategies like nanoscale redox reactions and domain wall motion in ferromagnets, JOSEPHINE will create adaptable weak links that enhance neuromorphic applications. This advancement could pave the way for supercomputer-level processors, autonomous vehicles, the Internet of Things, and novel medical technologies, drastically reducing environmental impact while expanding computational possibilities.

Objective

"We aim at realizing a novel class of high-temperature Josephson junctions (JJs) that behave as artificial neurons and synapses. These JJs will enable a new neuromorphic computing paradigm, in which neural networks are much faster, more energy efficient and compact than with non-superconducting approaches, and possess novel capabilities (combined sensitivity to light, magnetic and electric fields). Via these rupture ingredients, JOSEPHINE will dramatically enhance the impact of neuromorphics on its broad range of projected applications: from artificial intelligence (where it would allow supercomputer-level processors at a fraction of the environmental cost) to the control of autonomous vehicles, the Internet of Things, and novel medical applications. That constitutes the long-term vision for the science we propose. To reach that goal, we will use different strategies to realize high-Tc Josephson junctions whose weak-links are active and can be changed ""in operando"" by external stimuli. Those strategies include ""weak links"" modified by a nanoscale redox reaction, by the motion of domain walls in a ferromagnet, or by locally doping a graphene or a 2D semiconductor. Once realized, these JJs will be implemented and tested in neural networks to demonstrate their performance and their transformative effect on neuromorphics. The proposed strategy exploits recent breakthrough results of the partners (physical effects that will be implemented) and synergizes their complementary expertise via a multidisciplinary approach that marries traditionally distant disciplines: neural network engineering, superconducting electronics, and various facets of solid-state physics (superconductivity, magnetism, Dirac materials, and electrochemistry)."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

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Coordinator

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Net EU contribution
€ 807 967,50
Address
RUE MICHEL ANGE 3
75794 Paris
France

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Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Hauts-de-Seine
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost
€ 807 967,50

Participants (5)

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