Breakthrough Spintronic Technology for Semiconductor Industry: Researchers Develop Innovative Process to Manufacture Spintronic Devices

According to a recent report from Tech Daily on March 24, researchers from the University of Minnesota and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made a breakthrough in the development of a revolutionary process for manufacturing spintronics devices. This technology has the potential to become the new industry standard for semiconductor chips. The research paper was recently published in Advanced Functional Materials.

Spintronics is a critical field for building microelectronic devices with new functionalities. Spintronics devices use the spin of electrons instead of their charge to store data, offering a promising and more efficient alternative to traditional transistor-based chips. These materials also have the potential for non-volatile memory, which means they require less energy and can store memory and perform calculations even when the power is removed.

The University of Minnesota researchers overcame this challenge by using iron palladium materials to replace cobalt iron boron, allowing the material to be scaled down to a size of 5 nanometers. Furthermore, the researchers were able to grow iron palladium on silicon wafers for the first time using a multi-chamber ultra-high vacuum sputtering system that supports 8-inch wafers.

The lead author of the research paper, Deyuan Lyu, a PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota, stated, "This work shows for the first time in the world that this material can be grown on semiconductor industry-compatible substrates, and can be scaled down to less than 5 nanometers, known as the CMOS+X strategy." This breakthrough could have significant implications for the electronic components industry, as it opens up new possibilities for the development of more efficient and powerful microelectronic devices.