Commissioned by Bio Nano Consulting Ltd for the dissemination of PETMEM (Piezoelectronic Transduction Memory Device), a European Commission-funded project which brings together universities, research institutions and companies to explore low-voltage memory technologies.
This event was presented as part of Kings Place's Time Unwrapped programme
Watch the whole event below:

Month-18 Meeting in Dresden

At Max Planck Institute, Dresden, Germany (15-16th June 2017), the steering committee conducted a strategic review of the target application areas. We concluded that the best chance for early adoption of PETMEM will be through RF switching applications while the memory application (especially with VLSI) will be a longer-term target. By recognizing Europe’s strength in the RF sector, the consortium is convinced that the production of a RF switch demonstrator will generate a lot of interest for industrial collaboration (especially within the EU). Already, we have established contact with Prof Peter Aaen of Surrey University-5G centre who has accepted to perform initial microwave testing of the PETMEM RF switch demonstrators.

Month-12 Meeting in Zurich

IBM Zurich hosted the PETMEM consortium (left)  on the 8th and 9^th of December 2016. The consortium has achieved all of the intermediate objectives and milestones foreseen in year 1. We discussed the planned month-12 review meeting in Brussels. This was followed by a tour of the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center Switzerland.

On the 15th of December 2016, the project review took place in Brussels with representation from all the partners. The overall assessment was positive with specific recommendations for improved future exploitation of the technology. We are excited and filled with great expectations the next 6 months of the project. 

The Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) meeting of the PETMEM project will be hosted in London by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM³) on the 15^th of May 2017. The IAB include external contributors from industry and universities, who will be advising the "Consortium" in relation to the PETMEM technology and how it aligns with the expectations and needs of the industry. We are looking forward to some exciting and insightful discussions.

Prof. Markys Cain [Electrosciences Ltd, UK] attended the 2016 International Workshop on Acoustic Transducer Materials & Devices, 9-12 May 2016, held at Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA. The EU H2020 Project ‘PETMEM’ was provided with a 3 minute pitch and poster slot under the single crystals materials and devices session. Prof Cain outlined the PETMEM project’s key aims and objectives which culminated in a great deal of interest from the audience and subsequent poster session. The workshop provided a forum for reports on, and discussions of, the state-of-the-art in materials and devices to generate, detect, and suppress sound. Naturally, this then included the concepts behind the Piezoelectric transistor technology central to the PETMEM project. Prof Cain (right) also met and discussed the project with International steering committee member, Prof Susan Trolier-McKinstry of Penn State University, and later contributed to the IEEE standardisation committee on single crystal materials. The drive towards higher quality piezoelectric thin films and further integration into MEMS/NEMS electronic devices was noted as well as the continuing route taken to develop higher temperature single crystal piezoelectric materials.