IEEE NTC YPs – MTT-S YPs January 2026 Webinar

Title: Spintronic devices for microwave technology and unconventional computing

Speaker: Prof. Giovanni Finocchio 

Date: Tuesday,  January 13, 2026

Time: 14:00 PM (GMT+1 – CET – Rome time zone)

Registration: https://forms.gle/R4woUVXQXTeJ9WUG8

Abstract:

In this talk, I will present recent advances achieved in the development of spintronic microwave technology based on magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) from microwave detectors to electromagnetic energy harvesting. I will review the main applications of those devices for computing including the realization of Ising machines based on probabilistic computing with p-bits and oscillatory dynamics. Spintronic technology takes advantage of the manipulation of the electron spin together with its charge. This technology potentially combines important characteristics such as ultralow power needs, compactness (nanoscale size) and it is CMOS-compatible. Spintronics has different success stories such as the head read for magnetic hard drive and the recent spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memories. The latter are realized with MTJs which are devices composed of two ferromagnets separated by a ultrathin isolating material. The resistance of this device depends on the relative orientation of the magnetization of the two ferromagnets and in particular the configuration where the magnetization are parallel or antiparallel can code the binary information. Together with memory developments, which are already in the market and integrated within the CMOS processes by main foundries (INTEL, SAMSUNG, GlobalFoundries), MTJs can be used for the development of auto-oscillators and very high efficient detectors. In detail, I will show the applications of spintronic diodes based on MTJs for energy harvesting, sensors and RF detectors and what it is expected to achieve in the next three years for integration with CMOS-technology. The latter part of the talk will focus on probabilistic computing which is one direction to implement Ising Machines. Probabilistic computing is a computational paradigm using probabilistic bits (p-bits), unit in the middle between standard bit and q-bits. I will show how to map hard combinatorial optimization problems (Max-Sat, Max-Cut, etc) into Ising machine and how to implement those in spintronic technology. I will present new direction in this field considering the concept of extended probabilistic variable such as p-dit and p-int.

BIO: 

Giovanni Finocchio received the Ph.D. degree in advanced technologies in optoelectronic, photonic and electromagnetic modeling from the University of Messina, Italy, in 2005. He is full professor at the Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences of the University of Messina and director of the PETASPIN laboratory (Petascale computing and Spintronics). His research interests include spintronics, skyrmions, and unconventional computing (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=eKDbn-oAAAAJ&hl=en). In the last 10 years, he served on many technical program committees of international conferences and organized more than 10 international conferences and workshops as Chair, Program Committee Member, or in other positions including program chair of the IEEE NANO 2024 and program co-chair of the 2025 joint Intermag-MMM conference. He is regularly invited at well-established conferences in Magnetism and Spintronics and he was the organizer of the first international conference on Ising Machines. He is also president of Petaspin association (www.petaspin.com), AdCOM member of the IEEE Magnetics society, chair of the TC-16 on Quantum, neuromorphic and unconventional computing of the IEEE Nanotechnology council and past-chair of the IEEE Magnetics Italy chapter (2019-2022). Since 2022, he is also associate editor of Physical Review Applied (APS).