Intel is working on meso as a successor to cmos transistors

Researchers from Intel and the University of Berkeley are developing an alternative to CMOS transistors based on spintronics. The technology is more economical and can lead to smaller switches.

The researchers point out that the cmos, or complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology for transistors has been unchanged since the early 1980s, while the transistors themselves are being produced on an increasingly smaller scale. In looking for an alternative, or long-term successor, they turned to spintronics, where the spin of electrons is used as bits.

The result of the research is a technique that works through a combination of magnetoelectric switching and spin-orbit transduction, or meso for short. According to the research teams, switching requires ten to thirty times less energy, works at a voltage that is a factor of five lower than with CMOS and the density of switches can be increased by a factor of five. “In addition, the non-volatility enables ultra-efficient standby, which is crucial for modern computing,” they say in their publication in the scientific journal Nature.

In the meso technique, the bits are formed by the magnetic up and down spins in multiferroic material. This is material that is both ferromagnetic and ferroelectric: manipulating the electric field leads to a change of the magnetic state. The Intel and Berkeley teams found that this also worked at a voltage as low as 500 millivolts, to flip the electron spin that generates the magnetic field. The scientists predict that it is possible to lower the voltage further, to 100 millivolts.

The technique can be used for both logic, chips that process data, and memory. The material retains its state even without tension, making it a candidate for non-volatile memory. According to the researchers, the low consumption is particularly interesting, because improvements to this are crucial for the further growth of computing for artificial intelligence, internet-of-things and the car of the future.

The researchers published their work under the title Scalable energy-efficient magnetoelectric spin–orbit logic in the December issue of Nature.

Crystals of the multiferroic material bismuth iron oxide.