ABOUT

In 2020, Prof. Dr. Clivia Sotomayor Torres was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for the five-year LEIT project, aiming to develop disruptive technology based on phononic interconnects to significantly reduce the energy consumption of electronic circuits.

Highlights

The rapid increase in energy consumption and waste due to the proliferation of information technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a pressing issue. This necessitates a radical change in our electronic and communication technologies. While nanoelectronics has enabled further miniaturization and integration, it has also introduced new challenges, such as increased heating and higher energy consumption by interconnects compared to microprocessors.

Prof. Sotomayor Torres, Director-General of INL - International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, proposes an innovative solution to the interconnect energy-consumption challenge. The LEIT project, "Lossless information for emerging information technologies," aims to develop structures that leverage phonon properties for low-energy information transmission.

Features

Phonons, quanta of lattice vibration, can be used as low-energy information carriers, requiring only a fraction of a millielectronVolt (meV) of energy. However, phonons face challenges like phonon-phonon scattering and losses in waveguides. The LEIT project team will design novel crystal structures to filter, reflect, and confine phonons, ensuring longer phonon lifetimes and reduced losses. These structures, made from silicon and Si-compatible materials, will integrate seamlessly into current electronic circuitry.

Project Partners

The LEIT project officially commenced on January 29, 2021, with a scientific online kick-off meeting. Besides Prof. Sotomayor’s group, the project includes partners from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., the University of Science and Technology of Lille (France), and CEA, Grenoble (France).

Vision

Drawing on extensive research in phonons, semiconductor nanostructures, Si membranes, and phononic crystals, the LEIT project aims to demonstrate the viability of acoustic phonons as low-energy information carriers. This will lay the foundation for a new phononics-based approach to information processing, offering significant advantages in energy efficiency, reliability, and compactness.

Recognition

The LEIT project has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement nº 885689). This grant supports groundbreaking, high-risk projects proposed by outstanding research leaders with exceptional track records.