Grant: Alliance Grants

Due to the pandemic many things are undergoing a transformative change including the way we communicate, and work. Previously, people were tethered where they worked, but the pandemic showed that people can work, communicate, and remotely control a lot of hardware, processes, and services. It created a meteoritic rise in the demand for equipment and solutions for reliable and safe connectivity. It is expected that this surge will continue in the coming years to decades thus creating tremendous opportunities for commercialization, jobs, and economic recovery. The number of smart and connected devices are expected to surpass 83 billion by 2024. In the heart of all connected and smart devices is a small timing chip which is responsible for keeping time. Time is the essence of everything. A reliable and accurate time keeping device is in the heart of many electronic chips and integrated circuits (ICs). A timing device use a high precision oscillator to provide a reference frequency to measure time. This reference frequency generating chip is ubiquitous in many electronic devices and helps provide signals used to keep track of time, synchronize events in digital ICs, manage data transfer, define radio frequencies, and process signals. As the trend continues for better and reliable connectivity the demand for high accuracy but cost-effective solutions for timing device will remain at the center of major technological innovation thus providing many opportunities for improvements and commercialization. To address such challenges and to meet the unprecedented demand, this project will develop cost effective, low powered but highly stable and accurate timing device by a synergic combination of alternate semiconductor materials and novel device design. It will design, validate and manufacture the highest performing, most reliable, and cost-effective timing device that would be one of the world's first pioneering designs with true multi and programmable output. The invention of this high-performance timing micro-chip is expected to increase Canada's competitiveness in the emerging area of semiconductor and communications technologies, be manufactured in Canada and create new economic opportunities.