Quinas, a startup born within Lancaster University, has been awarded an Innovate UK project worth £1.1 million. They will work alongside global semiconductor company IQE and the Universities of Lancaster and Cardiff to bring the universal computer memory ULTRARAM to volume production. ULTRARAM combines the non-volatility of a storage memory like Flash with the speed and energy efficiency of a working memory like DRAM. During the one-year project, IQE will scale up the manufacture of compound semiconductor layers from Lancaster University to an industrial process at the Cardiff-based firm. Dr Peter Hodgson, CTO of Quinas, is leading the project.
James Ashforth-Pook, CEO and co-founder of Quinas, highlights the potential of ULTRARAM’s unique mix of non-volatile storage and rapid access memory, addressing the growing needs of emerging applications such as AI and quantum computing. “ULTRARAM’s ability to switch between a highly resistive state and a highly conductive state is the key to its unique properties,” explains Dr. Hodgson.
“This grant marks an important milestone as we move towards mass production of ULTRARAM,” he says. “A memory combining non-volatility with fast, energy-efficient write and erase capabilities has previously been considered unattainable.”
It is estimated that the global memory chip market will be worth $320 billion by 2030, but the UK has no stake in it. ULTRARAM has the potential to offer huge energy savings and carbon emission reduction.
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