Counting electrons one by one : measurement of very small electrical currents

Project Information

COUNT

Grant agreement ID: G6RD-CT-1999-00046

Project closed

Start date 1 January 2000

End date 31 December 2003

Funded under

• Programme for research technological development and demonstration on "Competitive and sustainable growth 1998-2002"

Total cost € 2 254 112,00

EU contribution € 1 340 856,00

Coordinated by

NMI B.V., INSTITUTE FOR METROLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY
Netherlands

Objective

The problem addressed in this project is the lack of instrumentation and knowledge for accurate and traceable measurements (and generation) of electrical currents smaller than one nano-ampere. The manifest trend in microelectronics towards size reduction of circuits imposes a corresponding decrease of electrical currents flowing through circuit elements. This leads to a growing demand in industry for small-current instrumentation. The objective of this proposal is to develop such instrumentation. The technological approach is based on single electron transport (SET) devices. Two complementary SET instruments will be developed: a current source (electron pump) and a current meter (electron counter). These devices are able to accurately count electrons one by one. A European approach is needed and will lead to cohesion in the quality of electrical measurements since all countries will in the longer-term use the same coherent instrumentation.

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.

• natural sciences › physical sciences › electromagnetism and electronics › microelectronics

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Keywords

• Nanotechnology

Programme(s)

• FP5-GROWTH - Programme for research technological development and demonstration on "Competitive and sustainable growth 1998-2002"

Topic(s)

• 1.1.3.-6. - RTD Activities of a Generic Nature : Measurements and Testing

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

NMI B.V., INSTITUTE FOR METROLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: 97,Schoenmakerstraat 97 ; 2600 AR DELFT ; Netherlands
• Total cost: No data

Participants (5)

BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND

Germany

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: 38116 BRAUNSCHWEIG
• Total cost: No data

CHALMERS TEKNISKA HOGSKOLA AB*

Sweden

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: 3,Fhysiksgraend 3 ; 412 96 Göteborg
• Total cost: No data

LABORATOIRE NATIONAL D'ESSAIS

France

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: Rue Gaston Boissier 1 ; 75724 PARIS
• Total cost: No data

National Physical Laboratory (NPL)

United Kingdom

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: Queen's Road ; TW11 0LW Teddington
• Total cost: No data

SP SWEDISH NATIONAL TESTING AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Sweden

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: 4,Brinellgatan 4-10 ; 501 15 Boräs
• Total cost: No data