At the end of last month, the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) stated it would make dozens of grants available, worth $75 million in total, to scientists in the academic and industry sector as part of the new Electronics Resurgence Initiative. The Initiative’s goal is to develop novel chip designs and materials, such as carbon nanotubes, to drive innovation in the silicon chip industry. Within the next few years, funding for the DARPA Initiative will reach $300 million, totaling $1.5 billion over five years.

The speed of chips is stagnant and new generations of chips are only 30% better in terms of energy efficiency. Over the past few decades, the limits of silicon as a chip material have been pushed, leaving fabricators nearing the physical confines of how silicon can be utilized. A major issue with silicon chips is the lack of space, as electrons are restricted to parts of silicon that are only one hundred atoms wide, which requires complicated designs to ensure that the electrons do not leak.

Additionally, costs for the fabrication plants in which silicon chips are made are in the billions, making it difficult for more than a handful of companies to set up manufacturing facilities, which is also curbing innovation and competition in the field. Because of this, some companies are designing specialized chips that can only be used in specific applications, which has diminished their incentive to spend on pre-competitive basic R&D.

The DARPA Initiative hopes to address these issues and foster innovation, through studying different materials, methods and designs to create a new generation of chips.

Source: Science