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Physical Measurement Laboratory /Nanoscale Device Characterization Division

Alternative Computing Group

The Alternative Computing Group has three areas of research in future electronics for information processing. Click on the links below for more information.

Hardware for Artificial Intelligence
Hardware for Artificial Intelligence
Electronic Device Measurements
Electronic Device Measurements
Nanotechnology Xccelerator
Nanotechnology Xccelerator

The Alternative Computing Group conducts wide ranging, cross-disciplinary research focusing on innovative measurement science in nanotechnology with an emphasis on applications in future electronics and information processing.  The Group’s current expertise includes measurements and theory for emerging neuromorphic devices and architectures, theory of magnetism and electronic structure, laser-based atom manipulation, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy.  These capabilities are put to use in research programs that support development of new paradigms in nanoelectronics and computing, examining such areas as resistive switching-based neuromorphic processing, spintronic and other nanomagnetic devices, focused ion beam imaging and fabrication, and device metrology including atomic scale defect detection.

News and Updates

Projects and Programs

Small array of transistors designed for single device integration.

Integrated CMOS Testbeds for Nanoelectronics and Machine Learning

Ongoing
The increasingly complex device requirements for next-generation computing architectures such as neuromorphic computing or nanoelectronic machine learning accelerators present challenges for researchers across the spectrum of institutions, from small businesses and universities to government
Custom-built wafer level probes in position to perform EDMR measurements on fully processed transistors.

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Ongoing
Electronics are all around us and have completely reinvented nearly every aspect of our society. Virtually any system, large or small, contains some type of electronics that may or may not be directly visible to the user. Our insatiable appetite for faster and better technology has been fueled by
EBIC Current

Neuromorphic Device Measurements

Ongoing
One type of device that is emerging as an attractive artificial synapse is the resistive switch, or memristor. These devices, which usually consist of a thin layer of oxide between two electrodes, have conductivity that depends on their history of applied voltage, and thus have highly nonlinear
schematic of the MOTIS ion beam source

Novel Sources for Focused-ion Beams

Completed
Commercial focused ion beams (FIBs) are used in a wide variety of applications. For example, they serve as diagnostic tools, slicing through a nanodevice to expose its internal structure. They can also shape nanoscale materials either by adding atoms to a structure or by shaving them off. And they

Publications

Continuum of Spin Excitations in the Exactly Solvable Triangular-Lattice Spin Liquid CeMgAl11O19

Author(s)
Bin Gao, Tong Chen, Chunxaio Liu, Mason Klemm, Shu Zhang, Zhen Ma, Xianghan Xu, CHOONGJAE WON, Dongzhe Dai, Gregory McCandless, Maiko Kofu, Naoki Murai, Stephen Moxim, Jason Ryan, Xiaozhou Huang, Xiaoping Wang, Julia Chan, Shiyan Li, Sang-Wook Cheong, Oleg Tchernyshyov, Leon Balents, Pengcheng Dai
In magnetically ordered insulators, elementary quasiparticles manifest as spin waves - collective motions of localized magnetic moments that propagate through

Measurement-driven Langevin modeling of superparamagnetic tunnel junctions

Author(s)
Liam Pocher, Temitayo Adeyeye, Sidra Gibeault, Philippe Talatchian, Ursula Ebels, Daniel Lathrop, Jabez J. McClelland, Mark Stiles, Advait Madhavan, Matthew Daniels
Superparamagnetic tunnel junctions are important devices for a range of emerging technologies, but most existing compact models capture only their mean

Awards

2023 IEEE EDS Leo Esaki Award

2023 IEEE EDS Leo Esaki Award

For recognizing the best paper appearing in a fast turnaround archival publication of the IEEE Electron Devices Society, targeted to the

Press Coverage

A dense grid of purple, blue and red lines on a square platform.

NIST, Google announce chip R&D partnership

FCW
The National Institute of Standards and Technology entered into a new agreement with search engine behemoth Google to help manufacture more chip technology that

Contacts

Group Leader