Scientists team up to put new 'spin' on electrons
BY Melissa Abraham
UCLA Today
UCLA will be the headquarters for one of the world’s largest joint research programs to focus on spintronics, a new technology that could enable the United States to take the lead in the highly competitive semiconductor industry.
It’s essential that U.S. researchers find innovations because the trend over the last few decades to make smaller, more efficient computer components cannot continue, explained a researcher at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, who is leading the effort to explore spintronics.
“Today’s devices, which are based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor standards, can’t get much smaller and still function properly and effectively,” said Electrical Engineering Professor Kang Wang, director of the new Western Institute of Nano-
electronics. “That’s where spintronics comes in.”
Today’s computers rely on devices based on electrical charges. These devices, ranging from vacuum tubes to microchips, move electrical charges around but currently ignore the spin of the electrons. Spintronics aims to use that extra spin action, choreographing electrons to move in one smooth reactive chain of motion, Wang explained. It’s the spin of an electron that will carry more information, and such devices will require much less power.
“The new memory of computers will make continuous operation possible, even with the loss of power,” Wang said. “Such computers could be booted up instantaneously. Extremely low-powered electronics — and an entirely new industry — will emerge.”
The technology could deliver lightweight, portable sensors for monitoring everything from your health to your car, as well as information systems “to guide our thoughts and decision-making in
a much more favorable fashion,” Wang said.
To lead this interdisciplinary effort, nearly 30 researchers from UCLA’s engineering school, UC Santa Barbara, Berkeley and Stanford will team up with researchers from six semiconductor industry sponsors, including Intel, IBM, Texas Instruments, AMD, Freescale and MICRON.
Part of the institute will be housed in a 3,000-square-foot laboratory within the new California Nano-Systems Institute building. The Western Institute of Nanoelectronics also will use new facilities at all the participating universities.
The institute is being established at a cost of $18.2 million, with the majority of support, $14.38
million in cash and equipment, coming from industry partners, particularly Intel. |
