The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) hosted a meeting for the INTERSECT project (an EU project focused on an Interoperable Material-to-Device simulation box for disruptive electronics) at the end of September at the BIST headquarters in the beautiful Escola Industrial in Barcelona.
The production and development of information-and-communication technologies based on silicon has historically taken place mostly in the USA and Asia. However, the current and major worldwide drive for big data, machine learning and quantum computing is pushing away from this all-silicon platform, providing a unique opportunity for the European industry to deploy novel technologies based on innovative materials and devices.
In this context the INTERSECT project was launched: an EU project coordinated by CNR NANO and integrated by several institutions from Italy (CNR NANO, MDLab-AMAT), Belgium (IMEC), Germany (Fraunhofer-Institut, FMC), Switzerland (EPFL) and Spain (ICN2, a BIST centre). The project aims to take advantage of the European leadership in materials’ modelling software and infrastructure to provide industry-ready integrated solutions, thus bridging the gap between academic innovation and industrial novel production.
During the last week of September, INTERSECT organized a meeting to discuss the state of the project and plan coming actions. Located at the BIST headquarters, in the beautiful Escola Industrial, the meeting was hosted by ICN2 Director Prof. Pablo Ordejón. They covered issues such as physical systems or code development. The project aims to develop a so-called IM2D framework – an interoperable material-to-device simulation platform – that will integrate some of the most used open-source materials modelling codes (Quantum ESPRESSO and SIESTA) with models and modelling software for emerging devices (GinestraTM). The final goal is accelerating the process of materials’ selection and device design and deployment by one order of magnitude.