Project: Memristive devices as quantum standard for nanometrology

Acronym	MEMQuD (Reference Number: 20FUN06)
Duration	01/06/2021 - 31/05/2024
Project Topic	The revised SI unleashes the prospect of the ‘NMI-on-a-chip’: self-calibrating devices able to independently connect measurements to fundamental constants. In the future, memristive devices might serve as such a standard for resistance, and might enable new types of computing architectures, with orders-of-magnitude lower power consumption than current complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. Memristors, a portmanteau of memory and resistor, are electrical resistance switches that exhibit quantised conductance. Practical applications could exploit potential capabilities for observing such effects without the limitations of quantum-Hall effect-based resistance standards, that require vacuum, cryogenic temperatures and intense magnetic fields. Device development has so far been hampered by a lack of reliable methods for measuring relevant physical quantities at nanoscale dimensions. This is important as memristor functionality is influenced by material purity: even parts-per-million contamination drastically affects capacitance, electronic structure, and thermodynamic properties, for instance. The project will develop instrumentation to measure size — at the nanometre scale — and develop measurement methods to help realise quantum-based standards of resistance of memristor devices, in air, at room temperature. New theoretical models of effects within memristors will be developed to set out relationships between material properties and functionality. Moreover, characterisation methods using scanning-probe-micro-scopes will be investigated, while methods to quantify device properties, cross-platform measurement techniques and a quantum-based standard of resistance for nano-applications will be developed. Accurate dimensional measurements and methods will support the development of self-calibrating systems. Spin-offs may also open up new developmental paths for the semi-conductor and electronics manufacturing industries, potentially unlocking powerful new computing capabilities offering breakthrough performance for applications like artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Website	visit project website
Network	EMPIR
Call	EMPIR Call 2020

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica	Coordinator	Italy
2	Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives	Partner	France
3	Instituto Português da Qualidade, I.P.	Partner	Portugal
4	Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt	Partner	Germany
5	Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu	Partner	Türkiye
6	Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy	Partner	Finland
7	Centre for Process Innovation Limited	Partner	United Kingdom
8	Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH	Partner	Germany
9	Fundación IMDEA Nanociencia	Partner	Spain
10	Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica centrum	Partner	Belgium
11	Politecnico di Torino	Partner	Italy
12	TOBB Ekonomi ve Teknoloji Üniversitesi	Partner	Türkiye
13	Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona	Partner	Spain
14	INESC Microsistemas e Nanotecnolgias-Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas de Computadores Para os Microsistemas e as Nanotecnologias	Observer	Portugal
15	Technische Universität Dortmund	Observer	Germany