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
Novel circuits and design strategies for sub-65 nanometre complementary metal oxide semiconductor technologies. This project will develop novel, state-of-the-art circuits and design strategies that overcome the challenges of current and future Integrated Circuit (IC) fabrication technologies. The extremely small sizes of transistors in these technologies offer advantages in speed, but at the price of a number of drawbacks, which the project will aim to overcome in this work. This research will m ....Novel circuits and design strategies for sub-65 nanometre complementary metal oxide semiconductor technologies. This project will develop novel, state-of-the-art circuits and design strategies that overcome the challenges of current and future Integrated Circuit (IC) fabrication technologies. The extremely small sizes of transistors in these technologies offer advantages in speed, but at the price of a number of drawbacks, which the project will aim to overcome in this work. This research will make a significant contribution to the field of IC design as well as providing training for students to fill the present and future needs of Australia's IC design companies. Some of the most advanced cochlear implants, mobile phone ICs, and Wireless Internet ICs have been designed in Australia, and companies in Australia desperately need graduates skilled in designing in the latest technologies.Read moreRead less
Synthesis, characterisation, and applications of atomically thin layers of transition metal oxides and dichalcogenides. The project will explore the key fundamental properties of atomically-thin layers of functional materials made of transition metal oxides and dichalcogenides. By reducing the thickness of these materials to only a few atomic layers, the project will create novel electronic properties that are otherwise not exhibited. The aims are to understand layer-dependent changes to their p ....Synthesis, characterisation, and applications of atomically thin layers of transition metal oxides and dichalcogenides. The project will explore the key fundamental properties of atomically-thin layers of functional materials made of transition metal oxides and dichalcogenides. By reducing the thickness of these materials to only a few atomic layers, the project will create novel electronic properties that are otherwise not exhibited. The aims are to understand layer-dependent changes to their physical and chemical properties; to control and tune such properties by altering crystal structure and composition; and to investigate the effect of mixed-layer heterostructure configurations on these characteristics. The fundamental insights gained will serve as the driver for the next generation nanotechnology-enabled electronics and sensing systems.Read moreRead less
Multilayer thin film memristors: designing interfaces and defect states in perovskites for nanoscale multi-state memories. This project will explore memristive devices, a frontier electronic memory technology, where the memory element's behaviour depends on its prior electronic experiences. This project will attempt to understand the processes that govern the storage and recall of information, to realise functional materials and interfaces that maximise memristive performance.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100023
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$330,000.00
Summary
Flexible transparent oxides – the future of electronics is clear. This project aims to support the development of flexible electronic devices incorporating the functional properties of oxide thin films. Oxide thin films require high processing temperatures, which are incompatible with flexible substrates. This project seeks to provide a solution by using a novel transfer process that allows oxides to be combined with flexible polymer substrates. Applications in sensing under the influence of hea ....Flexible transparent oxides – the future of electronics is clear. This project aims to support the development of flexible electronic devices incorporating the functional properties of oxide thin films. Oxide thin films require high processing temperatures, which are incompatible with flexible substrates. This project seeks to provide a solution by using a novel transfer process that allows oxides to be combined with flexible polymer substrates. Applications in sensing under the influence of heat, gas, and light will be studied. This project will potentially create devices that can be conformally applied to surfaces or worn on a person to act as low-cost sensors for toxic gases or ultraviolet radiation.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100909
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Metal oxide memristors: Switching phenomena in van der Waals nanostructures. This project aims to integrate two recently researched phenomena: memristors (resistive memory) and planar materials. It aims to adopt atomically thin, planar materials for memristors enabling the realisation of high performance resistive memory devices. The physical and environmental effects that govern the memristive properties, which are of utmost importance in understanding resistive memory nature, will be investiga ....Metal oxide memristors: Switching phenomena in van der Waals nanostructures. This project aims to integrate two recently researched phenomena: memristors (resistive memory) and planar materials. It aims to adopt atomically thin, planar materials for memristors enabling the realisation of high performance resistive memory devices. The physical and environmental effects that govern the memristive properties, which are of utmost importance in understanding resistive memory nature, will be investigated. While generating breakthrough knowledge, the key outcomes of this project will lay the foundation for a novel class of memory devices based on planar van der Waals nanostructures. Such a breakthrough will contribute to the realisation of sustainable memristor technology.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
Dark current and noise mechanisms in nBn HgCdTe infrared detectors. Novel mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) nBn (two n-type semiconductors sandwiching a barrier layer) infrared (IR) detectors are theoretically capable of operating at higher temperatures than conventional IR detectors. Their reduced cooling requirements lead to reductions in the size, weight and power of IR imaging systems without loss in IR detection performance. Unfortunately, HgCdTe nBn detectors are currently affected by non ....Dark current and noise mechanisms in nBn HgCdTe infrared detectors. Novel mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) nBn (two n-type semiconductors sandwiching a barrier layer) infrared (IR) detectors are theoretically capable of operating at higher temperatures than conventional IR detectors. Their reduced cooling requirements lead to reductions in the size, weight and power of IR imaging systems without loss in IR detection performance. Unfortunately, HgCdTe nBn detectors are currently affected by non-ideal dark current and noise levels whose physical origins and nature are poorly understood. The proposed experimental and theoretical investigations and optimisations are anticipated to minimise such non-idealities and thus enable the demonstration of HgCdTe nBn IR detectors capable of revolutionising portable IR detection systems for security and rescue applications.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.
Towards energy-efficient lighting based on light-emitting diodes: the role of silicon carbide grown on Si Wafers. This project will investigate a potential solution to the problems of cost and quality of light-emitting diodes for solid-state lighting. The expected outcome is knowledge to underpin future development of solid-state lighting that is suitable for a wide replacement of the much less efficient and effective incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes.