Foundations for Physically Unclonable nano-Security on Silicon. This project aims to develop an on-chip physical unclonable function (PUF) based on recent progress in nanotechnology to generate unprecedented number of unique signatures. This is significant because these signatures can be used for preventing fraud and counterfeiting, protecting sensitive data and securing communications. PUFs will play an extremely vital role in future security systems. The PUF in the proposed project will be sim ....Foundations for Physically Unclonable nano-Security on Silicon. This project aims to develop an on-chip physical unclonable function (PUF) based on recent progress in nanotechnology to generate unprecedented number of unique signatures. This is significant because these signatures can be used for preventing fraud and counterfeiting, protecting sensitive data and securing communications. PUFs will play an extremely vital role in future security systems. The PUF in the proposed project will be simple, fast, tiny, energy efficient and highly secure as a result of the abundant nano-fabrication variations. The outcome of this project will be a prototype of a super high secure nanoelectronic-based PUF that will be tested to evaluate the technology and its security against malicious attacks.Read moreRead less
Auditory perception in neural electronics. This project aims to develop a practical alternative to conventional electronic design. Faster and more powerful devices have resulted from placing ever more transistors on a computer chip, but this is reaching its physical limits. This project will develop a new way of designing smart electronic devices by taking inspiration from signal processing in biological brains, and applying it to the processing of audio signals. Expected outcomes are a device t ....Auditory perception in neural electronics. This project aims to develop a practical alternative to conventional electronic design. Faster and more powerful devices have resulted from placing ever more transistors on a computer chip, but this is reaching its physical limits. This project will develop a new way of designing smart electronic devices by taking inspiration from signal processing in biological brains, and applying it to the processing of audio signals. Expected outcomes are a device that recognises sounds, without needing remote computers to do the processing. These techniques can be applied to other senses, such as vision, advancing machine perception and enabling smarter devices.Read moreRead less
Digitally controlled mm-wave band selective devices and MEMS technology. This project aims to develop millimetre-wave frequency selective devices with programmable frequency response, using a silicon technology platform. It will design and make an entire radio system, including its tuneable antenna, at the wafer level. Wafer scale integration ensures the devices are compact and low cost, and can be inserted into smart watches for touchless gesture control, and minuscule devices, too small to be ....Digitally controlled mm-wave band selective devices and MEMS technology. This project aims to develop millimetre-wave frequency selective devices with programmable frequency response, using a silicon technology platform. It will design and make an entire radio system, including its tuneable antenna, at the wafer level. Wafer scale integration ensures the devices are compact and low cost, and can be inserted into smart watches for touchless gesture control, and minuscule devices, too small to be connected to the internet today. The project will demonstrate its devices in a wireless communication system operating at unprecedented data rates of over 100 Gb/s. These could transform terrestrial and satellite communication systems and propel Australia to the forefront of wireless communications.Read moreRead less
Diamond glass: An all-carbon technology for neural networks and biosensing. This project aims to use plasma deposition to synthesise diamond glass with the highest purity and the most diamond-like character so that it meets the strict requirements for emerging device applications. The extreme properties of diamond glass arise from the diamond-like bonding of the majority of its atoms. This amorphous, wide bandgap semiconductor is also the hardest known glass. The maximum diamond-like content pos ....Diamond glass: An all-carbon technology for neural networks and biosensing. This project aims to use plasma deposition to synthesise diamond glass with the highest purity and the most diamond-like character so that it meets the strict requirements for emerging device applications. The extreme properties of diamond glass arise from the diamond-like bonding of the majority of its atoms. This amorphous, wide bandgap semiconductor is also the hardest known glass. The maximum diamond-like content possible in diamond glass coatings is unknown, so determining its ultimate performance is difficult. Expected applications include medical diagnostics, non-volatile memories and programmable chips.Read moreRead less
Design automation for secure, reliable and energy efficient embedded processors. This project seeks to create a methodology to design and generate processors which are both secure, reliable and energy efficient for deployment in Internet of Things (IoT) systems, which require little on-going maintenance. In such systems, both security and reliability are paramount, particularly in medical devices, control devices in critical machinery, financial transactions and automotive electronics. The proje ....Design automation for secure, reliable and energy efficient embedded processors. This project seeks to create a methodology to design and generate processors which are both secure, reliable and energy efficient for deployment in Internet of Things (IoT) systems, which require little on-going maintenance. In such systems, both security and reliability are paramount, particularly in medical devices, control devices in critical machinery, financial transactions and automotive electronics. The project will use an open RISC-V processor which is sufficiently flexible to function as a base processor, with a myriad of tools such as compilers and debuggers available. Reliable computing machinery will enable systems to work in hostile environments and be functionally correct for longer.Read moreRead less
Advanced microwave and millimetre-wave microelectromechanical technologies for wireless communications. The project deals with the development and integration of radio frequency microelectromechanical devices that can reduce space and cost concomitant with enhanced performance. The outcomes of this proposal are devices with increased functionality required for multi-gigabit data rate transmission and millimetre wave wireless technologies.
Micro-electro-mechanical Technologies and Tuneable Millimetre-wave Systems. The project aims to develop background theory and microelectromechanical (MEM)-based techniques for monolithic fabrication that integrate highly miniaturised three-dimensional waveguides with MEM systems. These technologies shall be used to design, develop and fabricate reconfigurable millimetre-wave devices. The project aims to bring together micromachining and millimetre-wave circuits to enable the realisation of recon ....Micro-electro-mechanical Technologies and Tuneable Millimetre-wave Systems. The project aims to develop background theory and microelectromechanical (MEM)-based techniques for monolithic fabrication that integrate highly miniaturised three-dimensional waveguides with MEM systems. These technologies shall be used to design, develop and fabricate reconfigurable millimetre-wave devices. The project aims to bring together micromachining and millimetre-wave circuits to enable the realisation of reconfigurable systems on chip. These technologies offer reduced size, cost and power consumption and high functionality, unachievable with conventional millimetre wave technology alone. The planned outcomes of the project are necessary to satisfy the sharply risen requirements for current and future fourth and fifth generation (4G and 5G) wireless communications systems.Read moreRead less
Hardware Acceleration for Neural Systems. To really understand how brains work, we need to simulate neural networks of a size similar to that of the human brain (100 billion neurons, 100 trillion connections). Simulating such a network on standard computers in not possible because of its sheer size. Several groups are currently building very expensive and proprietary hardware to solve this, but the output from these projects will not be accessible to other researchers. In order to make real prog ....Hardware Acceleration for Neural Systems. To really understand how brains work, we need to simulate neural networks of a size similar to that of the human brain (100 billion neurons, 100 trillion connections). Simulating such a network on standard computers in not possible because of its sheer size. Several groups are currently building very expensive and proprietary hardware to solve this, but the output from these projects will not be accessible to other researchers. In order to make real progress in neuroscience, many more researchers need to be enabled to participate. To do this, the project will build a system from commercial hardware (FPGAs) that will cost only a few ten thousand dollars and it will make this design and software available for free. Read moreRead less
Probe based nano-fabrication of micro-electronic and mechanical systems. Integrated circuits (ICs) are the ubiquitous core of today's computers, medical devices and mobile phones. Unfortunately, advanced ICs are becoming more costly and difficult to fabricate. This project proposes a new method that uses a tiny, intense spot of light to create low-cost ICs that are small, fast and will enable a vast range of new technologies.
Breaking the glass ceiling: silicon-nitride (SiN) and doped silica glass for ultra high speed Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible optical processing and measurement chips. The global internet demands for energy and technology will soon be unsustainable. This project will pioneer faster, cheaper, far smaller, and more energy efficient optical signal processing and measurement chips compatible with silicon CMOS technology, for applications in telecommunications, silicon integ ....Breaking the glass ceiling: silicon-nitride (SiN) and doped silica glass for ultra high speed Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible optical processing and measurement chips. The global internet demands for energy and technology will soon be unsustainable. This project will pioneer faster, cheaper, far smaller, and more energy efficient optical signal processing and measurement chips compatible with silicon CMOS technology, for applications in telecommunications, silicon integrated circuits, and fundamental science.Read moreRead less