ASU researchers improve memory devices using nanotechOctober 24, 2007TEMPE, Ariz. - Arizona State University's Center for Applied Nanoionics (CANi) has a new take on old memory, one that promises to boost the performance, capacity and battery life of consumer electronics from digital cameras to laptops. Best of all, it is cheap, made from common materials and compatible with just about anything currently on the market. "In using readily available materials, we've provided a way for this memory to be made at essentially zero extra cost, because the materials you need are already used in the chips - all you have to do is mix them in a slightly different way," said Michael Kozicki, director of CANi. The research was conducted in collaboration with Research Center Jülich in Germany. It was published in the October 2007 issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices in the article "Bipolar and Unipolar Resistive Switching in Cu-doped SiO2." The team included Christina Schindler, on loan from Germany to CANi, Sarath Chandran Puthen Thermadam of CANi, Kozicki, and Rainer Waser of the Institute for Solid State Research and Center for Nanoelectronics Systems and Information Technology in Jülich.
For some time now, conventional computer memory has been heading toward a crunch - a physical limit of how much storage can be crammed into a given space. Traditional electronics begins to break down at the nanoscale - the scale of individual molecules - because pushing electronics closer together creates more heat and greater power dissipation. As consumer electronics such as MP3 players and digital cameras shrink, the need for more memory in a smaller space grows. Researchers have been approaching the problem from two directions, either trying to leapfrog to the next generation of memory, or refining current memory. CANi took both approaches, amping up performance via special materials while also switching from charge-based storage to resistance-based storage. "We've developed a new type of old memory, but really it is the perfect memory for what's going to be required in future generations," Kozicki said. "It's very low-energy. You can scale it down to the nanoscale. You can pack a lot of it into a small space." CANi was also able to overcome the limitations of conventional electronics by using nanoionics, a technique for moving tiny bits of matter around on a chip. Instead moving electrons among charged particles, called ions, as in traditional electronics, nanoionics moves the ions themselves. "We've actually been able to move something the size of a virus between electrodes to switch them from a high resistance to a low resistance, which is great for memory," Kozicki said. Most memory today stores information as charge; in the binary language of computers, this means that an abundance of charge at a particular site on a chip translated as a "one," and a lack of charge is translated as a "zero." The problem with such memory is that the smaller its physical size, the less charge it can reliably store. Resistance-based memory, on the other hand, does not suffer from this problem and can even store multiple bits on one site. Moreover, once the resistance is set, it does not change, even when the power is switched off. CANi's previous high-performance resistance-change memory has been licensed to three companies, including Micron Technology and Qimonda, and has attracted the attention of Samsung, Sony and IBM. However, it used some materials, specifically silver and germanium sulfide, previously unused by industry and therefore required new processes to be developed. The real advancement of CANi's newest memory is that researchers discovered a way to use materials already common in chip manufacturing. Although "doping" - mixing silicon with small amounts of conductive materials such as boron, arsenic or phosphorus - has been common practice for years, copper in silicon dioxide was largely unheard of. In fact, it was strictly avoided. "People have actually gone to great lengths to keep the silicon oxide and the copper apart," Kozicki said. "But in our case, we are very interested in mixing the copper with the oxide - basically, so that it would become mobile and move around in the material." "Because it can move in there, we can make a sort of nanoscale switch," he added. "This very, very small switch can be used in memory applications, storing information via a range of resistance values." Industry has already shown interest in the new memory and, if all goes well, consumers could see it on the market within a few years. "What it means is we could replace all of the memory in all sorts of applications - from laptops to iPods to cell phones to whatever - with this one type of memory," Kozicki said. "Because it is so low energy, we can pack a lot of memory and not drain battery power; and it's not volatile - you can switch everything off and retain information. What makes this significant is that we are using materials that are already in use in the semiconductor industry to create a component that's never been thought of before." Arizona State University Science News and Science Current Events Tag Cloud This tag cloud is a visual representation of term frequencies of random science news topics with common terms grouped together and emphasized by their display size. Nuclear Medicine Biomolecules Bad Breath Prozac Sturgeon Negative Emotion Heart Muscle Dyslexia MicroRNA Solar Energy Inflammation SARS Brachytherapy Smart-1 Dengue Fever Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Aspirin Spinal Muscular Atrophy Arctic Ice Heterochromatin Mars Express Molecular Imaging Fingerprint New Species Sinusitis
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Related Memory Current Events and Memory News Articles Unexpectedly long-range effects in advanced magnetic devices A tiny grid pattern has led materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Institute of Solid State Physics in Russia to an unexpected finding-the surprisingly strong and long-range effects of certain electromagnetic nanostructures used in data storage. UCLA collaboration identifies immune system link to schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a devastating mental disease, thought to be caused by the interaction of both genetic and environmental factors. Blood stem cell growth factor reverses memory decline in mice A human growth factor that stimulates blood stem cells to proliferate in the bone marrow reverses memory impairment in mice genetically altered to develop Alzheimer's disease, researchers at the University of South Florida and James A. Haley Hospital found. Alzheimer's research yields potential drug target Scientists at UC Santa Barbara and several other institutions have found laboratory evidence that a cluster of peptides may be the toxic agent in Alzheimer's disease. Scientists say the discovery may lead to new drugs for the disease. Rutgers Research: Parkinson's Disease Alters Patient's Ability to Learn from Rewards while Treatment Affects Ability to Learn from Negative Outcomes A new neuropsychological memory test is helping to uncover how Parkinson's disease can alter people's ability to learn about the consequences of the choices they make. Study identifies biomarker that safely monitors tumor response to new brain cancer treatment A specific biomarker, a protein released by dying tumor cells, has been identified as an effective tool in an animal model to gauge the response to a novel gene therapy treatment for glioblastoma mulitforme. Researchers see evidence of memory in the songbird brain When a zebra finch hears a new song from a member of its own species, the experience changes gene expression in its brain in unexpected ways, researchers report. Reading the brain without poking it Experimental devices that read brain signals have helped paralyzed people use computers and may let amputees control bionic limbs. But existing devices use tiny electrodes that poke into the brain. Gene predicts how brain responds to fatigue, human study shows New imaging research in the June 24 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience helps explain why sleep deprivation affects some people more than others. Dry autumns and winters may lead to fewer tornadoes in the spring, says UGA researcher Global warming will likely mean more unpredictable weather, scientists say, and a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia pins down, possibly for the first time, how drought conditions in an area's fall and winter may effect tornado activity the following spring. More Memory Current Events and Memory News Articles |
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