FLEET has made the following submission towards a review of Australia’s ‘critical technologies’, ie current and emerging technologies critical for Australia today (or could become critical within the next 10 years), aimed at giving Australia a clear competitive advantage, accelerating productivity growth, and creating well-paying jobs.
The ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET; FLEET.org.au) is a collaboration between Monash University, RMIT University, Swinburne University of Technology, University of New South Wales Sydney, Australian National University, University of Wollongong, and University of Queensland, comprising around 200 leading researchers in the fields of quantum technology, electronics, semiconductors, materials science, and electronic devices.
FLEET was formed to address a fundamental challenge: The growth of Information and computing technologies (ICT) is expected to become strongly limited by global energy production in 1-2 decades (see Figure).
Continued growth in ICT is critical for economic growth and national defence. Yet, current silicon-based technology is reaching the physical limits of what it can provide. New technologies will be required in the next decade to sustainably continue advancements in ICT.
Our Centre is just one indication that Australia is at the leading edge of research into advanced and next generation electronics technologies, and we are building the foundation that will keep Australian industry technologically relevant and competitive through the coming transitions in how we build and use electronics.
To reflect the critical need for new, sustainable electronics technologies, FLEET recommends the following two technologies be added to the list of Critical Technologies in the National Interest:
1) “Beyond CMOS” integrated electronics design and fabrication
2) “More than Moore” integrated electronics design and fabrication
These technologies are related to, but distinct from, Advanced integrated circuit design and fabrication, already recognized as a Critical Technology in the National Interest. The critical nature of Advanced integrated circuit design and fabrication has been reinforced by shortages in supply of advanced semiconductors during the pandemic, impacting nearly every advanced industry. The critical need for Australia to build capability in this technology has been highlighted recently by the NSW Chief Scientists and Engineer’s Australian Semiconductor Sector Study and a policy brief by ASPI, for example. FLEET supports the continued recognition of Advanced integrated circuit design and fabrication” as a Critical Technology in the National Interest.
However, FLEET believes that Advanced integrated circuit design and fabrication is too narrow to encompass emerging integrated circuit technologies which will be critical within 10 years. We must not only ensure that Australia is competitive in the present state-of-the-art critical technologies, but also must build the road to maintain competitiveness in emerging technologies which will be critical in the near future. These emerging technologies include:
1) ‘Beyond CMOS’ integrated electronics design and fabrication: The complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology for manufacturing integrated circuits in silicon is expected to stagnate in advancements in transistor density and energy efficiency in the next few years (the end of ‘Moore’s Law’). The state of the art in performance and energy efficiency is expected to be delivered in the future by one or more ‘Beyond CMOS’ technologies which rely on new materials (e.g. carbon nanotubes, two-dimensional semiconductors) and/or new phenomena (e.g. spintronics, topological insulators, excitonics, etc.).
2) ‘More than Moore’ integrated electronics design and fabrication: There is a growing need for computing systems which integrate several disparate functions into a single platform at low energy, power and size, which is not addressed by conventional CMOS manufacturing technology. These functions are often non-digital and do not scale with Moore’s Law. Examples of such functions are sensing (e.g. light, temperature, mechanical motion); harvesting energy (e.g. electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical); communications; and interfacing (e.g. mechanical actuation, power control, biological interfaces). More than Moore devices may also integrate analog computing technologies such as neural networks or other neuromorphic computing architectures. More than Moore technologies are critical to enable the expansion of computing to new applications which will drive economic growth and defence advantage in the near future. These include the ‘Internet of Things’ (i.e. ubiquitous sensing/computation/communications built into every object), wearable/flexible/printable electronics, and bionics. These technologies rely on capabilities that are distinct from traditional integrated circuit manufacture (‘Advanced integrated circuit design and fabrication’) and require unique design, fabrication, and packaging technologies.
These two technologies are considered to be critical emerging technologies by major international consortia. For examples, see the IEEE’s International Roadmap for Devices and Systems; relevant chapters attached to this submission) which forms the major roadmap guiding the $400B semiconductor industry, and NEREID: NanoElectronics roadmap for Europe.
These two emerging technologies will also be critical to underpin several of the critical technologies already on the list. ‘Beyond CMOS’ integrated electronics technologies are necessary for the energy sustainability of computing, and will underpin high-performance computationally intensive technologies such as Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and hardware accelerators, and High performance computing. “More than Moore” manufacturing technologies aim to develop new functionalities in integrated electronics, and will underpin several already identified Critical Technologies such as Sensors, timing and navigation, Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and hardware accelerators, and Machine learning (incl. neural networks and deep learning).
The proposed critical technologies are emerging, and likely to become critical in the next 10 years. Given the vital role of integrated electronics in nearly every industry as well as in national defence, these technologies require increased focus to ensure that Australia’s national interests will be protected in the future. Australia should plan and invest now to ensure that it has sufficient domestic capability in research & development, training, and manufacturing in ‘Beyond CMOS’ and ‘More than Moore’ integrated electronics design and fabrication.
Prof Michael Fuhrer
FLEET Director