Amorphous Chalcogenides - An Alternative For Glass And Silicon In Microelectronics

Graphene is a magical meta-material in present Human era. The metamaterials is creating a lot of stir in technical community. But this time researchers are working on the properties offered by a material which can bridge the gap between gadgets involving glass used in optical fiber networks and the backbone of today's technology; The Silicon chip.

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Chalgogenide Glass Sample

Scientists from University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre | | University of Southampton (ORC) are busy collaborating with University of Surrey and University of Cambridge to find ways and means of integrating newly found materials like amorphous chalcogenides in electronic circuitry. It should be noted that the material is already employed satisfactorily in applications like light emission and amplification, switching and other microelectronics applications like phase change memory.

ORC researchers have already started to think that the results of #-Link-Snipped-# will have some exclusive uses in electrical and optical arena. If the scientists are thinking in a right direction then we will see a wide range of electronic components including light emitting and photo diodes, optical amplifiers, logic gates and memory cells manufactured using the new material.

The Optoelectronic research centre has already good relations with a hoard of companies technology giants like IBM, BAE systems and Ilika Technologies plc to name a few. The collaboration of the three universities believes that their research will have deep impact on the present technology oriented industrial scenario. The research on the new materials will enable professionals, engineers and scientists to think out of the box in providing optoelectronic solutions.

The project initiated by the group of Universities has received a grant of £1.48m from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The project with a two year grant from EPSRC is an important project in the fleet of the council. This microelectronics research is christened as Performance Driven Design for Next Generation Chip Design. The Looking at the growing applications of the chalcogenides based electronic components; the amount invested in this project is expected to gr0w.

The Cambridge University head for the chalcolade based research, Prof. Stephen Elliott says

This combined computational and experimental project holds out the promise of delivering new functional materials, with a wide range of applications of interest to industry, and which should provide opto-electronic technologies beyond silicon.

He is very true in his approach, especially looking at the expanse of this several billion Euros market. In 2006, the market was rated around €200 billion. Looking at the prospects, the project can really make a big difference.