Low-loss electronics

Lessening the environmental impact incurred by ICT demands

The unrelenting progression of digital electronics has truly revolutionised our lives but growth comes at the price of the ever-increasing energy consumption of data centres and network servers. According to the most pessimistic energy forecasts, digital technologies are expected to consume around 21 % of available electrical energy by 2030. Therefore, a turn towards ‘green’ ICT solutions is necessary to lessen the environmental impact incurred by data-demands.

The carbon footprint of digital technologies can be greatly reduced with new types of devices, utilising the spin of electrons to encode binary bits rather than the traditional charge as used in the transistor. Spin is a quantum property having two binary states: spin up and spin down. There are advantages to using spins for information processing and storage: Spin currents are more energy efficient than traditional charge currents as they experience far less resistance, which means that there is less heat energy created; spins are non-volatile, meaning the data does not disappear when the power is turned off.

A combination of collective spin properties of quantum materials and novel computing architectures possesses some ideal properties that can overcome these technological challenges, and can deliver these benefits at room temperature

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