A drastic improvement in the energy efficiency of information technologies imperative and can no longer be delayed. It represents the only viable route to reconcile the digital transformation with the carbon footprint reduction, whose alignment was identified by the European Commission as critical pathway for sustainable development. Energy efficient edge-computing technologies are not only very important per se, but they will also reduce the workload of mobile networks for cloud connections, thus reducing the energy demand and carbon footprint of information technologies.
The project FIXIT that started off in November 2023 addresses the challenge to develop an innovative ultra-low power computing platform. Thus, FIXIT contributes to the development of key enabling technologies as a major groundwork to reinforce and maintain Europe’s position at the forefront of AI hardware development and utilization and finally to make Europe the first digitally led circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems.
Within FIXIT we build on two recent European discoveries of ferroelectricity, namely in CMOS compatible fluorite-type Hf0,5Zr0,5O2 and wurtzite-type AlScN materials. The development and co-integration of novel non-volatile ferroelectric synaptic devices (FSD) promises a tremendous increase of functionality over conventional CMOS technologies. Moreover, while ferroelectricity is considered as most energy efficient non-volatile storage technology, the combination of memory and logic functionality within one device allows to greatly reduce the data movement between storage and computing units in conventional systems. Thus, computation based on FSDs finally will lead to a minimization of the energy consumption on system level. In order to compete with conventional technologies we aim at scaling the FSDs towards the 20nm regime, while targeting at improved ferroelectric device performance with ultra-low power consumption, eventually fostering the miniaturization of self-sustaining electronic devices.
In a multi-disciplinary approach FIXIT encompasses all aspects starting from the development of ferroelectric materials and corresponding manufacturing process technologies via ferroelectric device design starting at technology readiness level 1 (TRL1), characterization, modelling and hybrid integration or packaging together with conventional CMOS designs towards the demonstration of seamlessly embedded integration into electronic systems. Our final goal is the demonstration of superior energy efficiency and performance of our computing platform in an AI-driven sensing application at TRL4.
The major objectives of the FIXIT project are:
• To provide ferroelectric materials and manufacturing processes for scaled FSDs ≤ 400 nm²
• To understand the analogue switching FSDs and to provide models for circuit design
• To manufacture and integrate FSDs into computing crossbar structures
• To demonstrate FSD array operation at system level
In order to make these contributions effective for the European Green Deal (e.g. targeting at a reduction of the emission of global warming gasses by 55% compared to 1980 already by 2030) FIXIT will disclose the pathway for industrial uptake of ferroelectric synaptic technologies not only towards the electronic component production by European semiconductor foundries, but further along the value chain towards industrial product development. Thus, FIXIT will critically contribute to the strategic European autonomy and competitiveness in the development and application of novel digital technologies.
