Andrey Bobylev: On Nanotechnology Center greatest achievements
Andrey Bobylev, Expert, shares about his experience at the Nanotechnology Center.
The Research and Educational Center of Nanotechnology opened several years ago, when University of Tyumen won a multimillion-dollar grant for the development of nanotechnology. Shortly after University of Tyumen invested in multi-module NanoFab complex, which is located in a special clean room facility. The complex is the main unit for Nanotechnology Center research.
Andrey Bobylev is an employee of the laboratory. He is currently working on a memristor technology. It could be described as an electrical component comprised out of the thinnest film on which information can be processed and stored.
This technology has a far-reaching potential: a memristor can combine the properties of operative and permanent memory, thereby turning it into a universal data carrier. Implementation of the memristor technology will significantly reduce the speed of information processing, which is crucial in modern day setting.
It is no secret, that in order to successfully implement a technology it needs to be utilized in some sort of a gadget or device. Which in turn will be picked up by the industry and make its way into our daily lives. Currently Andrey is working on the finer details of a device that utilizes the hybrid logic: some of the information will be processed through the transistor, as zeros and ones, and some using the memristor logic, which, in addition to those mentioned, has many intermediate values. Furthermore, the memristor has a memory; it is able to change its resistance depending on the amount of charge of the current that passed through it last.
Andrey calls the device a "primitive neural network" – a system that works similar to the networks of nerve cells of a living organism. In order to evolve, the system needs to completely abandon the encoding of information through a transistor, due to it being more energy-intensive for the neural network. The Center is still working on solving this problem. However, some examples around the world show that the transition is possible.
It is worth mentioning that the Center experiences some problems with materials. Researchers have to coat memristor films with titanium, which some well-known laboratories already frown upon. This can halt the progress of the research, although, according to Andrey, it may be contereffective to completely give up titanium.
“The difficulty in working with the memristor also lies in the fact that despite the active work of scientists around the world, there is still no adequate, complete mathematical apparatus that comprehensively describes how it all works. So the lovers of theoretical physics are welcome to crack the code so to say,” says Andrey.
The Nanotechnology Center assists other laboratories in research. For example, in cooperation with the UTMN Institute of Chemistry, the center developed strain-gauge sensing elements – a sensor device that analyzes the state of the object’s surface and sends a signal in case a deformation is found. Load cells are irreplaceable in aviation, heat and gas supply.
The Nanotechnology Center plans to publish several articles in international journals and take part in competitions to receive grants. Andrey admits that, although the work is filled with different risks, it is insanely interesting: “Our job gives has no guarantees. We can’t be sure that there will be a demand for our work, or that we will win a grant and be able to continue the research, or that we will make a useful breakthrough. Although, this makes our work more exciting".
Author: Anna Mandrichenko
Photo: Danil Starikov
Material provided by the "the Neft" online newspaper
