Seeking a Sustainable Future in Low Energy Technologies
Published on the 02 November 2021
physicists are key in the operation of the AustralianCentre of Excellencededicated toa sustainable future -Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies ().
FLEET research initiativesbringtogether over a hundred Australian and international experts with the goal todevelop a new generation of ultra-low energy electronics.
The impetus behind such work is the increasing challenge of energy used in computation, which already absorb5–8% of global electricity, doubling eachdecade.
For 50 years, society’s ever-increasing demandfor more computing has been largely met withincremental improvements in conventional, silicon-based (CMOS) computing technology – ever-smaller, ever-faster, ever-more efficient chips. We refer to this constant shrinking of silicon components as ‘Moore’s law’.Moore’s Law, however, is ending ().
Without a ‘beyond CMOS’ solution, energy will become the limiting factor on further computational growth in the nextcouple ofdecades.And, thepotentialof future technologies - such asArtificial Intelligence, an Internet of Things, and ‘self-drive’ vehicles - will be truncated.
“For computing to continue to grow, we need a new generation of electronics that dissipates much less wasted energy,” explainsFLEET Deputy Director, Professor Alex Hamilton( Physics).
FLEET- physicists are now tackling this challenge. Their approaches rangefrom experimental, material-science-based, totheoretical. Collaborative efforts between members of the Centre aregenerating beneficialspin-off applications along the way.
led by Physics PhD Student, Yonatan Ashlea Alava (pictured above), developed semiconductor fabrication advances that could improve electronic operation inhigh-frequency, ultra-small electronic devices, quantum dots, and qubit applications in quantum computing.
, confirmed the potential for exotic quantum materials known as topological insulators tosubstantially reduce the energy consumed by computing, finding that topological transistorscould reduceoperating (gate)voltage by half, and the energyconsumptionby a factor of four.
Topological materials (recognised by the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016) represent a paradigm shift in condensed-matter physics. Topological insulators conduct electricity in one-way paths along their edges, without the ‘back-scattering’ of electrons that dissipates energy in conventional electronics.FLEET’sdiscoveries and study ofareled by FLEET leader, Professor.
FLEET researchers also pursue and activescience outreach program, including:running lab tours for professional groups such as; conducting in-classand in-labschools outreach demonstrations ();delivering aweek-longto share physics with over 9000 local school students;producing;and helping to achieveFLEET’sgoals.
The FLEET Research Group at (known as a FLEET NODE)connects seven investigators from the School of Physics, the School of Materials Science and Engineering, and the School of Chemical Engineering with colleagues in six other Australian universities and 19other Australian and international science centres.
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