التحكم في الإلكترونيات عبر التحفيز الضوئي – هل سيصبح الماغنتيت هو المفتاح للأجهزة الجيلية القادمة؟

إمكانات السبينترونيك

Electronic components like transistors are traditionally built out of silicon and rely on semiconductors. The 0 and 1 signals in binary indicate the passing or blocking of an electric current. An alternative way to perform computation is spintronics devices that run on the spin of electrons (a fundamental quantum characteristic) rather than electric current (flow of electrons).

للسبينترونيك بعض المزايا مقارنةً بالأنظمة الإلكترونية الكلاسيكية, notably:

• بيانات أسرع، حيث يمكن تغيير السبين بسرعة أكبر.
• استهلاك طاقة أقل، لأن تعديل السبين يتطلب طاقة أقل من الحفاظ على تدفق الإلكترونات لتوليد التيار.
• يمكن استخدام معادن بسيطة بدلاً من مواد شبه موصلة معقدة.

Spintronics is notably used for hard drives and has allowed storage capacity to grow over the last decade.

A material already used in spintronics is الماغنتيت, a naturally occurring mineral made of oxygen and two forms of iron at different levels of oxidation.

المصدر: Britannica

على الرغم من أن الماغنتيت معروف بخصائصه المغناطيسية منذ عقود، لا يزال هناك ما يمكن تعلمه عنه.

Researchers from the EPFL in Switzerland have discovered that lasers can create new phase changes in magnetite that were previously unknown. This could, in turn, lead to a new generation of electronic equipment.

الخصائص الخفية للماغنتيت

The researchers focused on magnetite due to its metal-to-insulator properties, allowing it to switch from a conductor of electricity to blocking it. This is also known as a phase transition, where the properties of a material suddenly change from one stage to another, a little like how liquid water can turn into ice, with very different properties.

باستخدام نوعين مختلفين من الليزر، أحدهما يبعث ضوءًا بطول موجي 800nm والآخر بطول موجي 400nm (الأشعة تحت الحمراء والضوء المرئي)، اكتشفوا ظهور مراحل جديدة في الماغنتيت لم تُحدد من قبل.

This is not a trivial matter, as the researchers had to detect change happening in an infinitesimally small period of time. To do so, they used a technique called الحيود الإلكتروني الفائق السرعة (UED), which allowed them to look at atom movements lasting less than a picosecond or a trillionth of a second.

تغيير التكوين المكاني

Normally, magnetite’s atomic structure is “a monoclinic lattice,” where the unit cell is shaped like a skewed box with three unequal edges. Two of its angles are 90 degrees, while the third is different.

المصدر: ACS

الضوء بطول 800nm يسبب ضغط بنية الماغنتيت الذرية، محولاً إياها إلى بنية مكعبة. أظهر الملاحظة الفائقة السرعة للباحثين أن ذلك يحدث عبر عملية من ثلاث مراحل.

أما الضوء بطول 400nm فسبب توسع بنية المعدن الذرية، مكونًا تكوينًا مستقرًا جدًا، مما يجعله عازلًا ثابتًا.

This configuration is different from the previously known stable equilibrium of magnetite and provides deep insight into what is actually happening during the metal-to-insulator transition.

أنظمة إلكترونية جديدة

This discovery means that it is possible to change the effect on spin and current of magnetite just with light from lasers.

Thanks to very quick laser systems, it could allow for photon pulse to quickly change in a controlled fashion the nature of the metallic material.

“Our study breaks ground for a novel approach to control matter at ultrafast timescale using tailored photon pulses.

القدرة على إحداث والتحكم في المراحل الخفية للماغنتيت قد يكون لها آثار كبيرة على تطوير مواد وأجهزة متقدمة.

For instance, materials that can switch between different electronic states quickly and efficiently could be used in next-generation computing and memory devices.”

ذاكرة أفضل

Spintronics and magnetite are new frontiers for electronic system manufacturers. What started in a hard drive is now expanding to other memory systems.

على سبيل المثال، يمكن استبدال الذاكرة العشوائية (DRAM) بذاكرة مغناطيسية (MRAM). النسخة الأولى من هذا المفهوم هو منتج تجاري بالفعل من Everspin وقد تم استخدامه في طائرات إيرباص، بفضل مقاومته لتغيرات الحرارة وكذلك الإشعاع الكوني مقارنةً بأنظمة الذاكرة التقليدية.

Another advantage of MRAM is its smaller size and lower power consumption, which means up to 80% less power demand. This can allow MRAM to be incorporated as cache memory in processors at a greater total capacity while consuming less power and generating less heat, with both space and heat becoming key limiting factors in processor improvement.

الفوتونيات؟

The use of laser in changing magnetite conditions is reminiscent of the growing field of photonics, one of the options we discussed في مقالتنا عن الشركات التي تنقل الحوسبة إلى ما بعد أنظمة أشباه الموصلات.

A system already using laser and light to perform computation could greatly benefit from a memory system that relies on magnetite’s phase change induced by light. This could potentially allow the computation result to be directly converted into data with little intermediary step-consuming power and slowing things down.

شركات السبينترونيك

1. Everspin Technologies

Everspin is the branch of Freescale (currently named NXP, stock ticker NXPI) that is dedicated to developing MRAM memory systems. It got spinned-out and IPOed in 2016.

Everspin is considered the leader of MRAM technology, inheriting Freescale’s experience of being the first to commercialize an MRAM chip in 2006.

Because MRAM is a memory that persists even in the absence of a current, it is increasingly used in sensitive use cases where critical data are important.

Driven by pervasive applications such as data analytics, cloud computing, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial, artificial intelligence (AI), and Edge AI including Industrial IoT, the market for persistent memory is projected to grow at a CAGR of 27.5% between 2020 and 2030

Everspin

المصدر: Everspin

The company estimates the market will reach a $7.4B size by 2027. The company has no debt and positive free cash flow since 2021.

Everspin MRAM products are currently occupying a small but growing niche, serving markets where reliability is crucial like aerospace, satellites, data recorders, patient monitoring devices, etc.

المصدر: Everspin

The growth of chipsets, AI, and synaptic systems might also be a long-term boost for the company.

2. NVE Corporation

Another leader of spintronics, NVE has been working on this technology since its first patent in MRAM technology in 1995.

It produces spintronic sensors and isolators, mostly used in measurement and sensor systems for cars, gears, medical devices, power supplies, and other industrial devices.

المصدر: NVE

This puts NVE in a somewhat different category than Everspin, with NVE more of an industrial company with a strong position in a niche market (magnetometer using spintronics), while Everspin is more of a memory/computing company working with and in competition with the like of Intel, Qualcomm, Toshiba, and Samsung also developing their own MRAM product.

It can make it a more (or less) attractive stock depending on investors’ profile, with NVE’s stock more likely to appeal to more conservative investors looking for some dividend yield and safety.