Integrating advanced nanomaterials into transformative technologies

摩尔定律是微电子学进步的试金石，在过去的40年里，它在计算机处理能力方面取得了显著的进步。对持续增长的需求是永无止境的，但传统技术将在十年内屈服于设备大小的基本限制。我的愿景是消除摩尔定律的这个障碍。我的解决方案是用一系列本质上多状态的设备取代今天的二进制技术，从而显著提高性能，而不需要进一步的小型化。在我担任研究员期间，我将建立一个研究小组，探索实现这种转变所需的物理、材料和表征技术的进步。我的核心研究计划以电阻随机存取存储器(Re-RAM)为范例，这是一种真正的下一代技术，可能会使传统的随机存取存储器(RAM)和硬盘驱动器(HDD)过时。它在单个设备中提供HDD的非易失性和写入耐久性，以及传统RAM的快速访问时间。此外，它还具有“堆叠”的3维体系结构和固有的多态功能，这两者结合在一起可以真正彻底改变数据存储密度。Re-RAM材料在外加电压下会发生可逆的化学或结构变化，从而使器件电阻发生实质性变化，从而起到开关或存储数据‘位’的作用。然而，对于大多数候选材料来说，即使是对制造和纳米图案化协议的基本了解，更不用说开关模式的基本物理知识了。因此，目前还不可能建立可靠的多状态设备。只有通过对过程和功能的大量研究，才能将纳米科学转化为应用。在许多情况下，目前的不确定性仅仅是因为用于纳米分辨表征的适当工具现在才变得可用。这项研究最令人兴奋的方面之一是我提出的在操作过程中对原型设备进行原位电子显微镜表征的发展。这将是第一次，它将可能使用电子显微镜来成像设备，并在纳米级探测它们的化学成分，同时向样品施加电压或电流脉冲。这一进展将使人们能够充分了解Re-RAM设备、它们的动力学、可伸缩性以及它们对缺陷的容忍度。最终，它将导致设备设计的改进，我自信地预计，除了这一计划外，它还将有各种受益者。该奖学金的另一个变革性方面是，我将通过整合多铁材料来扩大Re-RAM，远远超出当前的技术水平。这些材料保留了定义明确的电和磁状态，这些状态可以整合到基本的Re-RAM设备中，但可以独立切换，进一步扩展了多状态能力，真正超越了当今的二进制技术。在此期间，将开发改进的制造协议，并将评估这些新技术的组合功能和内在可扩展性。开关行为和结构-功能关联将被直接成像，导致前所未有的洞察力，并有可能发现许多新的和令人兴奋的物理学。

Moore's Law, the touchstone for advances in microelectronics, has bench-marked improvements in computer processing power over the past 40 years. The demand for continued increase is insatiable, but conventional technologies will succumb to fundamental limits on device size within a decade. My vision is removal of this roadblock to Moore's Law. My solution is to replace today's binary technologies with a range of intrinsically multi-state devices, thereby dramatically increasing performance without a need for further miniaturization. During my fellowship I will build a research group to explore the physics, materials and advances in characterisation techniques required to enable this transformation. My core research programme takes as an exemplar resistive random access memory (Re-RAM), a genuinely next-generation technology that could make obsolete both conventional random access memory (RAM) and hard disk drives (HDDs). It offers in a single device the non-volatility and write-endurance of HDDs with the rapid access times of conventional RAM. Furthermore, it has the potential for 'stacked', 3-dimensional architectures and intrinsic multi-state functionality, which together could truly revolutionise data storage densities. Re-RAM materials undergo reversible chemical or structural changes under an applied voltage, giving a substantial change in device resistance that can function as a switch or stored data 'bit'. However, even basic understanding of the fabrication and nano-patterning protocols, let alone the underlying physics of the switching mode, is lacking for most candidate materials. Thus, it is not currently possible to build reliable multi-state devices. Moving the nanoscience to application can only be enabled by substantial research into processing and function. In many cases, the present uncertainty is simply because appropriate tools for nano-resolved characterization are only now becoming available. One of the most exciting aspects of this fellowship is my proposed development of in-situ electron microscopy characterization of prototypical devices during operation. For the first time, it will be possible to use electron microscopy to image devices and probe their chemistry on the nanometre scale whilst simultaneously applying voltage or current pulses to the sample. This advance will enable a full understanding of Re-RAM devices, their kinetics, scalability and their tolerance to defects. Ultimately, it will lead to improved device design and I confidently expect it to have a variety of beneficiaries outside of this programme. A further transformative aspect of the Fellowship is that I will augment Re-RAM far beyond the current state of the art by incorporating multiferroic materials. These materials retain well-defined electric and magnetic states that could be incorporated into the basic Re-RAM device but switched independently, further expanding the multi-state capability to truly transcend today's binary technologies. During this Fellowship, improved fabrication protocols will be developed and the combined functionality and intrinsic scalability of these new technologies will be assessed. The switching behaviour and structure-function correlation will be imaged directly, leading to unprecedented insights and, potentially, discovering a host of new and exciting physics.