Reliably unreliable nanotechnologies

Nanoscale resistive switching (RS) elements, also known as memristors, are nowadays regarded as a promising solution for establishing next-generation memory, due to their infinitesimal dimensions, their capacity to store multiple bits of information per element and the miniscule energy required to write distinct states. Currently, the microelectronics community aspires exploiting these attributes in a deterministic fashion where information encoding and processing is realised via static representations. In consequence, research efforts are focused on optimising memristor technology in a "More Moore" approach to comply with existing CMOS devices attributes, i.e. high-yield, supreme reproducibility, very long retention characteristics and conventional circuit design formalisms. The functional properties of such elements are however associated with irreversible rate-limiting electro/thermo-dynamic changes that often bring them in "far from equilibrium" conditions, manifesting opportunities for unconventional computing within a probabilistic framework.

This fellowship aims exploiting the strong emergence of ultra-thin functional oxides, nanoscale resistive switching elements and large-scale systems of the same. We will first investigate the effect of quantum phase transitions and the mechanisms leading into thermodynamically stable/unstable long-range order/disorder of distinct materials. These mechanisms will then be exploited in nanoscale solid-state devices for establishing the state-of-the-art in non-volatile multi-state memory but also volatile elements that could potentially be employed as dynamic computational elements. The rich-dynamics of the later will be compared against reaction-diffusion mechanisms of naturally occurring nano-systems to facilitate novel design paradigms and emerging ICT applications for substantiating unconventional computation formalisms. A successful outcome will demonstrate a mature memristive device manufacturing technology that will be supported by the necessary design tools, for taking CMOS technology far beyond its current state-of-art.

The interdisciplinary work proposed within this unconventional fellowship framework seeks providing authoritative answers to an extremely diverse audience, including: computer science, electronics, physics, materials, chemistry, neuroscience, education and other communities that are intrigued by the way memory and computation are transcribed in nanosystems. Thus the anticipated impact expands across three main areas: (1) Economy, (2) Host Institutions (Imperial College London, STFC) and UK science-base, and (3) Society.

Economy: The main beneficiaries stand to be the semiconductor and micro/nano-electronics industries. The proposed research will disentangle the fundamental processes involved in the functioning of the memristor to promote its use as a fully dynamic computation element. This newly discovered device has already impacted the memory industry, with multi-billion global businesses such as HP, Samsung, Hynix and IBM investing substantially for harnessing this technology in emerging data-storage concepts. The impact of this fellowship will thus be reflected in the semiconductor industry of tomorrow, by adjusting processing techniques and materials to accommodate the reliable fabrication of memristors as static-loads in the short-term and as purely dynamic rate-limiting computation elements in the long-term. Respective technological advancements will also be realized for employing such elements along with conventional devices in standard technologies, with the provision of extending this towards a totally probabilistic platform, supported by appropriate models and circuitry. This strategy bares significant impact for the computer-science industry as we foresee the reshaping of existing computation strategies, with the potential to facilitate novel applications that in turn could provoke further R&D investments for exploiting this technology in emerging products and services.

Host Organisations and UK-science: By combining the multi-disciplinary strengths of our collaborators and the host departments we aim to:
- Innovate using the ingredients from different disciplines for enhancing the knowledge economy.
- Develop end-to-end infrastructure from a range of technologies, design methodologies and applications.
- Cultivate inter-disciplinary IP for accelerating the commercialization of this disruptive technology.
- Foster the training of highly skilled researchers.

Society: Biology makes excellent use of resources to solve a given task, being efficient, robust, adaptable, real-time, effective, scalable and reliable. For the above reasons, any engineer would do extremely well in learning from nature. The technology we propose developing could shine more light in the way memory and computation is transcribed in biological systems. This question has often been addressed by a broad range of disciplines, from philosophy to medicine and more recently engineering. Apart from providing knowledge to society, we believe that this project could be further exploited, leading into advances on international developments, primarily in healthcare and automation, as computation-demanding spatial problems are often encountered in both application domains. Without doubt, a successful knowledge translation of this technology could significantly enhance the "quality of life" through innovating new services, improving the effectiveness of existing ones but also contributing towards sustaining environmental resources.