Spintronics research in Singapore gets a boost with new funding
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ll also have a heavy focus on modeling and simulation “to make sure we understand the properties that are really needed for an application,” Blue said. Aerospace parts, for example, require composites with more than double the tensile strength and elastic modulus than auto parts need. So it might be possible to make car parts using lower temperature processes that result in lessenhanced materials properties. “The key thing in automobile is don’t pay for properties that you don’t need,” he said. Developing new lightweight composites for automobiles will require a multi-material solution, Blue said. So scientists will look at a combination of carbon-fiber and glass-fiber-reinforced composites, but also at metals such as manganese and aluminum. In addition to materials research, the IACMI should help to advance technical
Spintronics research in Singapore gets a boost with new funding www.nrf.gov.sg
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any mobile phone users complain about having a short battery life, which requires them to recharge the battery on a daily basis. This is because a battery needs to “feed” billions of energy-hungry, tiny electronic components within the phone—even when the user is not operating the phone. In the not-so-distant future, mobile phone batteries may be able to last weeks or longer, due to latest research in spintronics. Spintronics is an emerging area that holds great potential for creating the next generation of electronic devices. The National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore, announced in April a new fund of S$5 million, to support industry collaborations with Institutes of Higher Learning in developing new applications through spintronics research. “Spintronics research focuses on creating ‘normally-off’ devices for ‘always-on’ applications. Computers are like humans, having to constantly access memory when making decisions. When users demand higher performance,
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MRS BULLETIN
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VOLUME 40 • JUNE 2015
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it creates more traffic between the command center and the memory unit. In addition to making the memory nonvolatile, spintronics research could help to significantly shorten the distance of this information highway, making it faster and more energy efficient. It could also lead to completely new logic devices that have brain-inspired computing applications,” said Wu Yihong, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Wu heads the Singapore Spintronics Consortium (SG-SPIN), which was set up last year by NUS and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and supported by the NRF, to spur collaborative research partnerships between industry and Institutes of Higher Learning in the area of spintronics. SG-SPIN has already initiated collaborations with industry on a number of spintronics research projects. This includes research to increase the speed and capacity of data storage in
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education and to train a skilled manufacturing workforce for supporting the anticipated growth in a
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