Measuring 1 Square Nanometer, Scientists Create World's Smallest Memory Unit
Researchers claim to have made the worlds smallest memory device yet. The development comes from a team of electrical engineers at the University of Texas at Austin US in collaboration with scientists from Peking University. In a development to a two-year old research scientists have improved upon the physics that enables dense memory storage capabilities in tiny chips.
In a development to a two-year old research, scientists have improved upon the physics that enables dense memory storage capabilities in tiny chips. With this, the researchers claim to have made the world¡¯s smallest memory device yet.
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The development comes from a team of electrical engineers at the University of Texas at Austin, US, in collaboration with scientists from Peking University. Published recently in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the research mentions the development of a memory storage device with a cross-section area of just a single square nanometer.
In the process of creating the smallest memory unit, scientists also claim to have figured out the physics dynamic that unlocks dense memory storage capabilities for such devices.
The research builds upon a two-year old work, wherein the same scientists made the thinnest memory storage device at the time. The original device was a single atomic layer thick and was named ¡°atomristor¡±. This time, scientists have managed to shrink the cross-sectional area of the chip further.
Scientists were able to do this with the use of defects, or holes in the material. ¡°When a single additional metal atom goes into that nanoscale hole and fills it, it confers some of its conductivity into the material, and this leads to a change or memory effect,¡± said Deji Akinwande, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
(Representative Image: UT News)
¡°The scientific holy grail for scaling is going down to a level where a single atom controls the memory function, and this is what we accomplished in the new study,¡± Akinwande said.
Next pen drives?
Such devices fall under the category of memristors, electrical components which can modify resistance. Memristors are smaller than everyday memory devices used and offer more storage capacity.
The advantages don¡¯t end there, shrinking the size of memory chips also decreases their energy demands. This means such memristors are faster, smarter devices that take less power to operate. Such devices are used in digital memory, logic circuits, neuromorphic systems and other fields.
The latest and now the world¡¯s smallest memristor promises a capacity of about 25 terabits per square centimeter. ¡°That is 100 times higher memory density per layer compared with commercially available flash memory devices,¡± a university release mentions.
The researchers used molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as the primary nanomaterial in their study. They, however, believe that the discovery ¡°could apply to hundreds of related atomically thin materials.¡±