Grant Awarded to Advance Innovative Microelectronic Manufacturing Solutions

With funding from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science and direction from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a new Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) has been established. Its goal is to advance microelectronics manufacturing by exploring novel approaches to component construction. The center will receive $14.4 million over the course of four years.

The researchers suggest transmitting information using spin waves, which can travel through semiconductors and even insulators, instead of transporting electrons through conducting metallic interconnects in the minuscule and constantly smaller components of systems like microchips used in computers and mobile phones. An energy wave known as a spin wave travels through a material as a result of atoms’ magnetic moments changing.

Over the years people have tried to manipulate the electrons that produce charge in traditional microelectronics by manipulating their spin, but whenever you move around electrons you have charge current, and when you have charge current you are dissipating energy, which will cause all kinds of heating and resistance.

Yuri Suzuki, Professor and Principal Investigator, Stanford Institute of Materials and Energy Sciences

“Our idea is to try a completely different paradigm – what if we can send information via spin waves without electrons or metals? For example, if we could replace copper interconnects with spin-wave interconnects in devices, we aren’t flowing any charge current and are going to save energy,” Suzuki added.

Working together with SIMES Director Harold Hwang, Wei-Sheng Lee, SIMES lead scientist, and Georgi Dakovski, Matthias Hoffmann, and Alexander Reid, lead scientists at SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), Suzuki will lead the EFRC known as the Center for Energy Efficient Magnonics (CEEMag).

Researchers from seven universities—Cornell University, Ohio State University, Northwestern University, University of California, Irvine, University of Iowa, and the University of Texas at Austin—are among the other center members.

The multidisciplinary group includes specialists in electrical engineering, materials science, X-ray and ultrafast research, and other fields. The partnership employs a co-design strategy to advance discoveries, which concurrently addresses every facet of research and development, from manufacturing to basic science.

According to Suzuki, having access to LCLS—the most potent X-ray laser in the world—is essential because measuring and identifying spin waves necessitates timelines and frequencies that LCLS can explore with its incredibly quick and strong X-ray light pulses.

The team’s goal is to establish the practicality of a subset of microelectronic components based on magnonics or spin waves, such as interconnects, amplifiers, and switches.

Suzuki further added, “We are investigating fundamental science questions to see if technology based on magnonics can move the needle in terms of energy efficiency in microelectronics.”

Microelectronics, which are becoming progressively small - small fractions of the tiniest items visible to the naked eye - are critical components in everyday technologies such as communications, transportation, health care, computing, renewable energy, and many others.

The SLAC-led center is one of ten EFRCs announced by the DOE on September 4^th, 2024, to form world-class teams of scientists to conduct new research on energy technology and to strengthen the scientific workforce by drawing students to the area of energy science.

Fundamental research in the areas covered in these awards is critical for generating foundational knowledge that underpins technologies that are important for DOE and the nation. Strengthening our understanding of the chemistry and materials science behind advanced manufacturing of polymers, microelectronics, and quantum technologies will foster a cleaner and more energy-efficient future.

Harriet Kung, Acting Director, Office of Science, Department of Energy