PFI-RP: Partnership to develop next-generation memory chips for intelligent computing systems.

Award ID: 1919109

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project is in providing a new hardware platform for energy-efficient and high-performance computing systems. The rise of big data has enabled the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in the cloud and on edge devices, and is fundamentally transforming the computing, networking and data storage industries. However, existing hardware cannot sustain the rapid growth of data-centric computing. In particular, fast and energy-efficient AI requires better embedded memory technologies (i.e. data storage devices inside computer chips) that are simultaneously fast to read and write, while delivering high capacities with low cost, along with low power consumption. This project will address this challenge by developing a novel type of on-chip magnetic memory device, focusing on its commercialization in the data storage, AI, communications and networking markets. The proposed project will develop a new type of magnetic random access memory (MRAM), referred to as voltage-controlled spin-orbit (VCSO) memory. MRAM is the leading contender for emerging AI systems due to its low power consumption and high endurance, and is entering volume manufacturing across the semiconductor industry after more than a decade of research and development. However, its current version suffers from density and speed limitations that limit its ultimate addressable market. This project will develop devices and memory arrays based on new physical principles and materials, which will allow the devices to overcome the physical limitations of existing MRAM, and achieve higher speeds with better scalability to smaller bit dimensions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Samir Iqbal