Quinas Technology Ltd. - Commercialising ULTRARAM computer memory

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Digital electronics underpins mobile, personal and cloud computing. It comprises digital logic, built up to astonishing levels of complexity in processors, and memory. Memory is the larger in market size ($167bn) and is utterly dominated (96%) by dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and flash. DRAM is the main or working memory in computing. Its data can be changed very quickly, and an almost unlimited number of times (high endurance), but it is volatile, meaning that without power information is lost. Indeed, even when powered DRAM must be continually refreshed; 'dynamic' is a euphemism for forgetful! Flash has completely opposite characteristics. It is non-volatile, storing data in a solid-state drive or a USB stick you can carry around. However, flash's robust storage of data makes it more difficult to write and erase; it is slow and easily wears out (low endurance). DRAM and flash's roles in memory make the most of their advantages, whilst their disadvantages are mitigated by background processes hidden from the user. An ideal, 'universal' memory would combine all the advantages of DRAM and flash, without any of their disadvantages. Due to the contradictory properties that such a memory must possess, i.e., have robustly stored data that can easily be changed, it was widely thought to be unachievable.ULTRARAM is a remarkable, patented, memory technology developed by Lancaster University that successfully combines the attributes of universal memory. Exploitation of a quantum-mechanical process called resonant tunnelling allows ULTRARAM to deliver non-volatility with fast and energy-efficient write and erase, resulting in high endurance. ULTRARAM has the non-volatility of flash, with a performance that is expected to exceed that of DRAM. In this project, Quinas Technology, a recently formed spinout from Lancaster University, with a CEO that is an entrepreneur with over 30 years' experience in the semiconductor industry, will lay the technical and commercial foundations for industrial exploitation of ULTRARAM. We will advance the technology by Moore's-law-style shrinking of individual devices (single memory bits), test their characteristics using highly-specialist equipment, refine their properties using world-leading modelling expertise, and predict the performance of multibit arrays. The technical and commercial work in the project will facilitate significant seed investment that will launch Quinas as a commercial enterprise that will disrupt and transform the memory industry, reaping substantial economic benefit for the UK and helping to achieve net-zero carbon emissions through energy efficient computing.