New spintronics process paves the way for faster computer chips

A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a process for making spintronic devices that has the potential to become the new industry standard for the semiconductor chips that make up computers, smartphones, and many other electronics. The new process could enable faster, more efficient spintronics devices that can be also be scaled down. The researchers also worked with University of Minnesota Technology Commercialisation and NIST to patent this technology, along with several other patents related to this research.

Jian-Ping Wang, senior author of the paper, said the researchers believe they have found a material and a device that will allow the semiconducting industry to move forward with more opportunities in spintronics for memory and computing applications. “Spintronics is incredibly important for building microelectronics with new functionalities,” Wang said.

This discovery also opens up a new vein of research for designing and manufacturing spintronic devices for the next decade. “This means Honeywell, Skywater, GlobalFoundries, Intel and companies like them can integrate this material into their semiconductor manufacturing processes and products. That’s very exciting because engineers in the industry will be able to design even more powerful systems,” Wang said.

The semiconductor industry aims to develop smaller and smaller chips that can maximise energy efficiency, computing speed and data storage capacity in electronic devices. Spintronic devices, which leverage the spin of electrons rather than the electrical charge to store data, provide an efficient alternative to traditional transistor-based chips. These materials also have the potential to be non-volatile, meaning they require less power and can store memory and perform computing even after their power source has been removed. Spintronic materials have been integrated into semiconductor chips for more than a decade, but the industry standard spintronic material, cobalt iron boron, has reached a limit in its scalability, as engineers are unable to make devices smaller than 20 nanometres without losing their ability to store data.

The University of Minnesota researchers have demonstrated that iron palladium, an alternative material to cobalt iron boron that requires less energy and has the potential for more data storage, can be scaled down to five nanometres. The researchers were also able to grow iron palladium on a silicon wafer using an eight-inch wafer-capable multi-chamber ultrahigh vacuum sputtering system.

“This work is showing for the first time in the world that you can grow this material, which can be scaled down to smaller than five nanometres, on top of a semiconductor industry-compatible substrate, so-called CMOS+X strategies,” said Deyuan Lyu, first author on the paper.

“Our team challenged ourselves to elevate a new material to manufacture spintronic devices needed for the next generation of data-hungry apps. It will be exciting to see how this advance drives further growth of spintronics devices within the semiconductor chip technology landscape,” said Daniel Gopman, one of the key contributors to the research.

The research findings were published in Advanced Functional Materials.

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