Nanosystems are promising high performance alternatives to existing sensing and processing systems. However, their cost is often enhanced by object-oriented design and manufacturing, wherein a costly nanomanufacturing process is used for making one product for one application. By using structured design philosophies similar to the ones used in popular Complementary mental oxide semiconductor (CMOS) Integrated Circuits, we propose to showcase the feasibility of cheap nanosensors as well as integration of nanosystems with existing manufacturing facilities. This provides an opportunity for existing IC design houses to include nanosystems in their design flow, while developing a novel single chip low cost multifunctional nano-sensor array made from Graphene.

Electech, covering areas such as sensors, power electronics, embedded computing, wireless communication technology, autonomous systems and large-area electronics, is predicted to play a foundational role in the future development of industries and value chains. It is central to Innovate UK's core strategy and its importance to future economic growth cannot be overstated. It is vital that the UK maintains a strong electronics design and technology base in the face of international developments. The proposed European chips act (February 2022), will mobilise 43 43 billion euros by 2030 in 'policy-driven investment' for the EU's semiconductor sector. The US CHIPS Act will result in a $280 billion investment to bolster their semiconductor capacity, catalyse R&D, create regional high-tech hubs and grow a more inclusive STEM workforce. The UK has a very vibrant but dispersed, electronic systems academic community, organised into larger activities in the universities of Glasgow, Imperial College London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Southampton, University College London and Queen's University Belfast as well as satellite activities in a range of other universities. The community have been able to organise into an effective electronic systems community via the eFutures network (EPSRC eFutures2.0: Addressing Future Challenges grant, May2019-2023). In addition to growing the community, the objectives of the existing eFutures2.0 network had been to explore multidisciplinary opportunities for the sector. The successes of eFutures include: the organisation of 20+ in-person and online events (1825 attendees); the creation of a new website and a YouTube channel with 34 videoed talks (speakers from 19 countries) with a total of 1180 views; increased network membership by over 400% and move from a pure mailout model to include social media, achieving 64% of event attendees who had not previously engaged with the network; the delivery of two new, strategic landscaping reports: 'UK Landscape in AI & Brain-Inspired Computing Hardware' (Q4 2021) and 'Electronics for Healthcare: R&D across the UK' (expected Q1 2023). The 2021 Report had national media coverage, follow-up events (150 attendees), an upcoming, high-value proposal and a mention in the EPSRC Delivery Plan. The Healthcare Report results from online and in-person events (264 attendees) leading to a Programme Grant proposal. The network funded six multidisciplinary, concept projects (£78k), benefitting 11 academics across ten UK and four international universities; and delivered focussed engagement with 59 early-career and 30 mid-career researchers via two in-person workshops and online training. Ultimately, the aim is to further enhance the impact of UK electronics systems academic research and put the community in a strong, competitive position for collaboration with both national and international researchers, and industry. As highlighted above this will be achieved by continuing to build and growing network membership, organising the Net-Zero multidisciplinary event to engage our community more broadly in the area with other academic areas and companies to tackle this key topic, represent a strong focus on the electronics systems academic community in the UK, supporting early career researchers and growing the community by encouraging interaction or the national and international level and increasing the funding. We will achieve this by building on the successes of the eFutures2.0 activity with the same leadership team and steering group. The success and commitment to this activity is indicated by the in-kind commitment of £64,000 from our steering group companies.

Our vision is to rejuvenate modern electronics by developing and enabling a new approach to electronic systems where reconfigurability, scalability, operational flexibility/resilience, power efficiency and cost-effectiveness are combined. This vision will be delivered by breaking out of the large, but comprehensively explored realm of CMOS technology upon which virtually all modern electronics are based; consumer and non-consumer alike. Introducing novel nanoelectronic components never before used in the technology we all carry around in our phones will introduce new capabilities that have thus far been unattainable due to the limitations of current hardware technology. The resulting improved capability of engineers to squeeze more computational power in ever smaller areas at ever lower power costs will unlock possibilities such as: a) truly pervasive Internet-of-Things computing where minute sensors consuming nearly zero power monitor the world around us and inform our choices, b) truly smart implants that within extremely limited power and size budgets can not only interface with the brain, but also process that data in a meaningful way and send the results either onwards to e.g. a doctor, or even feed it back into the brain for further processing, c) radiation-resistant electronics to be deployed in satellites and aeroplanes, civilian and military and improve communication reliability while driving down maintenance costs. In building this vision, our project will deliver a series of scientific and commercial objectives: i) Developing the foundations of nanoelectronic component (memristive) technologies to the point where it becomes a commercially available option for the general industrial designer. ii) Setting up a fully supported (models, tools, design rules etc.), end-to-end design infrastructure so that anyone with access to industry standard software used for electronics design today may utilise memristive technology in their design. iii) Introduce a new design paradigm where memristive technologies are intimately integrated with traditional analogue and digital circuitry in order to deliver performance unattainable by any in isolation. This includes designing primitive hardware modules that can act as building-blocks for higher level designs, allowing engineers to construct large-scale systems without worrying about the intricate details of memristor operation. iv) Actively foster a community of users, encouraged to explore potential commercial impact and further scientific development stemming from our work whilst feeding back into the project through e.g. collaborations. v) Start early by beginning to commercialise the most mature aspects of the proposed research as soon as possible in order to create jobs in the UK. Vast translational opportunities exist via: a) The direct commercialisation of project outcomes, specifically developed applications (prove in lab, then obtain venture capital funding and commercialise), b) The generation of novel electronic designs (IP / design bureau model; making the UK a global design centre for memristive technology-based electronics) and c) Selling tools developed to help accelerate the project (instrumentation, CAD and supporting software). Our team (academic and industry) is ideally placed for delivering this disruptive vision that will allow our society to efficiently expand the operational envelope of electronics, enabling its use in formidable environments as well as reuse or re-purpose electronics affordably.

Our vision is to rejuvenate modern electronics by developing and enabling a new approach to electronic systems where reconfigurability, scalability, operational flexibility/resilience, power efficiency and cost-effectiveness are combined. This vision will be delivered by breaking out of the large, but comprehensively explored realm of CMOS technology upon which virtually all modern electronics are based; consumer and non-consumer alike. Introducing novel nanoelectronic components never before used in the technology we all carry around in our phones will introduce new capabilities that have thus far been unattainable due to the limitations of current hardware technology. The resulting improved capability of engineers to squeeze more computational power in ever smaller areas at ever lower power costs will unlock possibilities such as: a) truly pervasive Internet-of-Things computing where minute sensors consuming nearly zero power monitor the world around us and inform our choices, b) truly smart implants that within extremely limited power and size budgets can not only interface with the brain, but also process that data in a meaningful way and send the results either onwards to e.g. a doctor, or even feed it back into the brain for further processing, c) radiation-resistant electronics to be deployed in satellites and aeroplanes, civilian and military and improve communication reliability while driving down maintenance costs. In building this vision, our project will deliver a series of scientific and commercial objectives: i) Developing the foundations of nanoelectronic component (memristive) technologies to the point where it becomes a commercially available option for the general industrial designer. ii) Setting up a fully supported (models, tools, design rules etc.), end-to-end design infrastructure so that anyone with access to industry standard software used for electronics design today may utilise memristive technology in their design. iii) Introduce a new design paradigm where memristive technologies are intimately integrated with traditional analogue and digital circuitry in order to deliver performance unattainable by any in isolation. This includes designing primitive hardware modules that can act as building-blocks for higher level designs, allowing engineers to construct large-scale systems without worrying about the intricate details of memristor operation. iv) Actively foster a community of users, encouraged to explore potential commercial impact and further scientific development stemming from our work whilst feeding back into the project through e.g. collaborations. v) Start early by beginning to commercialise the most mature aspects of the proposed research as soon as possible in order to create jobs in the UK. Vast translational opportunities exist via: a) The direct commercialisation of project outcomes, specifically developed applications (prove in lab, then obtain venture capital funding and commercialise), b) The generation of novel electronic designs (IP / design bureau model; making the UK a global design centre for memristive technology-based electronics) and c) Selling tools developed to help accelerate the project (instrumentation, CAD and supporting software). Our team (academic and industry) is ideally placed for delivering this disruptive vision that will allow our society to efficiently expand the operational envelope of electronics, enabling its use in formidable environments as well as reuse or re-purpose electronics affordably.