News: Microelectronics
16 April 2026
Quinas completes Innovate UK project advancing ULTRARAM for AI and neuromorphic computing
Quinas Technology Ltd of London, UK (which was spun off from Lancaster University in early 2023) has completed a project funded by Innovate UK (which provides funding and support for business innovation as part of UK Research and Innovation) that explored the application of its proprietary ULTRARAM technology to neuromorphic computing.
Delivered under the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) ‘Developing Semiconductor Hardware for Critical Technologies‘ scheme, the program represents a milestone in the development of ULTRARAM as a new class of memory for secure, energy-efficient and sustainable AI systems.
Based on compound semiconductors and quantum resonant tunnelling, ULTRARAM uniquely combines the speed and endurance of DRAM with the non-volatility of flash and ultra-low-energy operation in a single device. The completed project has advanced device optimization and the architectural foundations required for compute-in-memory (CIM) and neuromorphic applications.
Inspired by the structure of the human brain, neuromorphic applications relies on performing computation directly within memory to reduce data movement and energy consumption. ULTRARAM offers a pathway to enable this paradigm, addressing fundamental limitations of conventional memory technologies.
The project builds on Quinas’ collaboration with Lancaster University and compound semiconductor epiwafer maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK, and supports ongoing work toward ULTRARAM crossbar arrays and future chiplet-level integration.
“This project demonstrates the potential of ULTRARAM to address one of the most fundamental challenges in computing — the growing gap between memory and processing,” says Quinas’ co-founder & chief technology officer Dr Peter Hodgson. “By combining speed, non-volatility and ultra-low-energy operation, ULTRARAM opens up new possibilities for neuromorphic and in-memory computing systems,” he adds.
“This grant is a huge endorsement of our ambition to reimagine memory from the device level up,” says co-founder & CEO James Ashforth-Pook. “ULTRARAM is more than just a new memory — it’s the foundation for a new era of secure, energy-efficient and sustainable AI. By unifying speed, non-volatility and ultra-low power, we’re challenging legacy assumptions across logic, storage and inference,” he adds. “This milestone marks a critical step in our roadmap to bring next-generation memory to market and opens the door to new collaborations with investors, customers and system integrators shaping the future of intelligent, sustainable compute.”
The outcomes of this program underpin recent advances in ULTRARAM system-level modelling and neuromorphic architectures, supporting its continued development toward real-world AI hardware applications.
Quinas continues to expand its international research and commercial ecosystem, working with partners across device physics, modelling, and system integration to accelerate the deployment of ULTRARAM in next-generation computing systems.
The company has received global recognition for its innovation in semiconductor memory, including honours from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, the ICTGC Innovation Awards in Taiwan, and the Future of Memory and Storage Conference in Silicon Valley.
QuInAs links device physics to AI system performance using ULTRARAM
IQE and Quinas complete Innovate UK-funded £1.1m ULTRARAM industrialization project
