UK firm wins funding for new quantum memory tech
Quinas, a Lancaster University spinout startup, has bagged a £1.4m grant from Innovate UK to advance its 'universal' computer memory technology, ULTRARAM.
The company is making big claims for its innovation, which is based around a quantum-mechanical process called resonant tunnelling. This tech is typically applied to compound semiconductors that are used in photonic devices such as LEDs, laser diodes and infrared detectors, but not in digital electronics, which is the preserve of silicon.
At present, the USD 165bn memory market is dominated by dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash. DRAM is fast but volatile, while NAND is non-volatile, but relatively slow and with poor program/erase cycling endurance.
Quinas says ULTRARAM combines the best properties of both, combining the non-volatility of a data storage memory of flash, with the speed, energy-efficiency, and endurance of a working memory of DRAM. With this new funding in place, Quinas will start the first step towards volume production at a firm based in Cardiff.
Professor Manus Hayne, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Quinas said in a press release: “ULTRARAM represents a tremendous economic opportunity for the UK, and the efficiencies it could bring to computing at all scales has the potential for huge energy savings and carbon emission reduction.”
