SG-SPIN Boosts Singapore’s Spintronic Capabilities

The Singapore Spintronics Consortium (SG-SPIN) will facilitate research collaborations between academia and industry.

AsianScientist (Dec. 10, 2014) ­- The Singapore Spintronics Consortium (SG-SPIN) has been established, encouraging researchers to explore innovative electron spin-based technologies for sensor, memory and logic applications. The consortium will facilitate collaborative research partnerships between the institutes of higher learning and industry and aims to attract more companies to conduct spintronics activities in Singapore.

The founding members of SG-SPIN are the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Applied Materials, Inc., Delta Electronics and GLOBALFOUNDRIES. A memorandum of understanding between these five organisations was signed on December 5, 2014, where they agreed to collaborate on spintronics R&D activities. The NUS Industry Liaison Office, which is part of NUS Enterprise, took the lead in driving and facilitating this collaboration.

SG-SPIN is led by Professor Wu Yihong from NUS Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore and NTU’s NTUitive.

Spintronics is an emerging technology that utilizes the intrinsic spin of electrons and associated magnetic moment, in addition to their electronic charge which used in existing electronic devices. This area of research can potentially lead to more energy-efficient, larger capacity and faster devices compared to current technology. Spintronics technology is already used in hard disk drives and magnetic field sensors. Potential new applications include nonvolatile memory, logic and biomedical devices.

“The industry stands to benefit significantly from participating in SG-SPIN, as it gains access to in-depth research findings as well as new opportunities for licensing spintronics-related intellectual property. From a national point of view, Singapore will benefit from these research collaborations in spintronics, due to the training of manpower and seeding of the next phase of semi-conductor development jobs here,” said Dr. Lily Chan, CEO NUS Enterprise.

Dr. Lim Jui, CEO of NTUitive, NTU’s commercialization arm, said that the university is excited to be part of this coordinated academic-industrial effort to translate technologies in an area in which Singapore has deep strengths.

“Spintronics is an interdisciplinary field which merges mechanical and electronic engineering with physics. In recent years, NTU has been making a global impact in engineering and physics, through our strengths in translational research and industry partnerships. By working hand in hand with our consortium partners, we aim to make a real difference to the global spintronics landscape, and in so doing, deliver economic benefit to Singapore.”

Singapore has been building up its spintronics capabilities since the late 1990s. Due to existing strengths in data storage and the concentration of companies in the electronics sector, the environment is conducive for spintronics research.

NRF Singapore has supported five Competitive Research Programs in this area, investing approximately S$39 million (~US$31 million). These research projects cover a wide range of topics, including electric-field controlled magnetic memory, spin wave and pure spin current devices, spin-orbit and spin transfer torque devices, spin transistors and domain wall memory.

“NRF Singapore has helped, over the years, to catalyze research capabilities in spintronics in the universities and we are starting to have a good number of experts working in the area. Companies in Singapore are increasingly finding value in working with universities and vice versa. I am excited that partners like Applied Materials, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Delta Electronics, NUS and NTU are cocreating the future of spintronics,” said Professor Low Teck Seng, CEO NRF Singapore.

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Source: National Research Foundation.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

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