Transforming Digital Technologies through the SPEAR ITN project
SPEAR ITN project (Spin-orbit Materials, Emergent Phenomena and Related Technologies Training), coordinated by CIC nanoGUNE, is a multidisciplinary European network training a new generation of highly skilled researchers able to address future memory technologies and nanoelectronics beyond CMOS.
The overarching scientific and technological objective of this research program is to study materials with strong spin-orbit coupling, novel phenomena in these materials, and to build devices based on these phenomena for the next generation of memories, such as magnetic random-access memory (MRAM), and beyond-CMOS technology, e.g., spin-orbit-based logic, machine learning or neuromorphic computing.
A group of early-stage researchers from different research institutes and companies across Europe, starring Mayank Sharma from CIC nanoGUNE, explain how Spintronics is transforming digital technologies:
The project, launched in 2021, is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement Nº 955671, and brings together an international and multidisciplinary network made up of seven universities, three research centres and seven small and medium sized companies. These are CIC nanoGUNE, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Antaios, NanOsc AB, Universität Hamburg, QZabre Ltd., Graphenea Semiconductor, Scienta Omicron GmbH, SIMUNE Atomistic Simulations, Skills 4 Science, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Universidad del País Vasco UPV-EHU, Université Grenoble Alpes and Chalmers University of Technology.