Nano Switches that Store More Data Head to Market Products featuring memristors could appear in 2013.

Nano Switches that Store More Data Head to Market Products featuring memristors could appear in 2013.

  10:03:00 AM    Science Lover

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An electronic component that offers a new way to squeeze more data into computers and portable gadgets is set to go into production in just a couple of years. Hewlett-Packard announced today that it has entered an agreement with the Korean electronics manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor to make the components, called "memristors," starting in 2013. Storage devices made of memristors will allow PCs, cellphones, and servers to store more and switch on instantly.

Making memories: This colorized
atomic-force microscopy image shows
17 memristors. The circuit elements,
shown in green, are formed at the
crossroads of metal nanowires.
Credit: StanWilliams, HP Labs

Memristors are nanoscale electronic switches that have a variable resistance, and can retain their resistance even when the power is switched off. This makes them similar to the transistors used to store data in flash memory. But memristors are considerably smaller--as small as three nanometers. In contrast, manufacturers are experimenting with flash memory components that are 20 nanometers in size.

"The goal is to be at least double whatever flash memory is in three years--we know we'll beat flash in speed, power, and endurance, and we want to beat it in density, too," says Stanley Williams, a senior fellow at HP who has been developing memristors in his lab for about five years.

HP makes memristors by laying down parallel metal nanowires onto a substrate, coating them with a layer of titanium dioxide, and placing a second layer of nanowires perpendicular to the first layer. Where the wires cross, a memristor is formed. HP expects the first devices containing memristors to offer about 20 gigabytes of storage per square centimeter, twice the projected capacity of flash at this time. The company has dubbed memristor-based data storage "ReRAM", which stands for Resistive Random Access Memory.

Like other silicon technologies, flash memory is approaching the physical limits of what's possible in miniaturization. Flash memory also wears out after about 100,000 read-write cycles (longer than the lifetime of most gadgets), while lab tests have shown that memristors can withstand up to about a million read-write cycles.

Under the terms of the new agreement, HP will maintain the intellectual property related to memristors. Hynix will make and sell memristor memory to HP and other customers. Williams says the company's goal is to encourage the industry to adopt memristor memory. "The economic benefit to HP will be as the first mover," says Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at industry analyst firm InStat.

Displacing flash could still take years and billions of dollars, and the industry has other experimental kinds of memory to consider, notes McGregor. Researchers are working on phase-change and ferroelectric materials that can make new forms of memory. McGregor believes that, given the likelihood of speed bumps in manufacturing, it's unlikely a commercial memristor product will be available in 2013, as HP and Hynix predict.

But Williams does not foresee any major manufacturing hurdles. He says HP has been working for the past year on prototype devices with an undisclosed semiconductor manufacturer. Williams adds that memristors can be made with materials and machinery already present in semiconductor factories.

Dan Olds, a consultant with Gabriel Consulting Group in Beaverton, Oregon, is optimistic about the technology. "The sky's the limit if they can deliver on the promise of memristors--the question is at what price, and how fast prices will come down," he says. "Any new technology is a crapshoot, but if it's a matter of engineering and not basic research, then you feel more confident betting on it."

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Ultralow-power memory uses orders of magnitude less power than other devices

Ultralow-power memory uses orders of magnitude less power than other devices

  12:25:00 AM    Science Lover

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As RFID tags are becoming more widespread for tracking and identifying almost anything, researchers are continuing to develop cheap, ultralow-power memory devices for these applications. In a recent study, scientists from Cambridge have taken another step forward in this area by developing a write-once-read-many-times (WORM) memory device that requires just a fraction of the power needed by previous devices. In principle, the low-power memory can be used in any organic electronic circuit where the operation power is low.

The device structure and energy level diagram of the WORM
memory, which can be programmed at power densities that
are orders of magnitude lower than previously reported
ultralow-power WORM devices. Image credit: Wang, et al.
©2010 American Institute of Physics.

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Plastic Computer Memory Device That Utilizes Electron Spin to Read and Write Data: Alternative to Traditional Semiconductors

Plastic Computer Memory Device That Utilizes Electron Spin to Read and Write Data: Alternative to Traditional Semiconductors

  11:54:00 AM    Science Lover

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Researchers at Ohio State University have demonstrated the first plastic computer memory device that utilizes the spin of electrons to read and write data.

Abstract digital data. (Credit: iStockphoto)

An alternative to traditional microelectronics, so-called "spintronics" could store more data in less space, process data faster, and consume less power.

In the August 2010 issue of the journal Nature Materials, Arthur J. Epstein and colleagues describe how they created a prototype plastic spintronic device using techniques found in the mainstream computer industry today.

At this point, the device is little more than a thin strip of dark blue organic-based magnet layered with a metallic ferromagnet and connected to two electrical leads. (A ferromagnet is a magnet made of ferrous metal such as iron. Common household refrigerator magnets are ferromagnets.) Still, the researchers successfully recorded data on it and retrieved the data by controlling the spins of the electrons with a magnetic field.

Epstein, Distinguished University Professor of physics and chemistry and director of the Institute for Magnetic and Electronic Polymers at Ohio State, described the material as a hybrid of a semiconductor that is made from organic materials and a special magnetic polymer semiconductor. As such, it is a bridge between today's computers and the all-polymer, spintronic computers that he and his partners hope to enable in the future.

Normal electronics encode computer data based on a binary code of ones and zeros, depending on whether an electron is present in a void within the material. But researchers have long known that electrons can be polarized to orient in particular directions, like a bar magnet. They refer to this orientation as spin -- either "spin up" or "spin down" -- and have been working on a way to store data using spin. The resulting electronics, dubbed spintronics, would effectively let computers store and transfer twice as much data per electron.

But higher data density is only part of the story.

"Spintronics is often just seen as a way to get more information out of an electron, but really it's about moving to the next generation of electronics," Epstein said. "We could solve many of the problems facing computers today by using spintronics."

Typical circuit boards use a lot of energy. Moving electrons through them creates heat, and it takes a lot of energy to cool them. Chip makers are limited in how closely they can pack circuits together to avoid overheating.

Flipping the spin of an electron requires less energy, and produces hardly any heat at all, he explained. That means that spintronic devices could run on smaller batteries. If they were made out of plastic, they would also be light and flexible.

"We would love to take portable electronics to a spin platform," Epstein said. "Think about soldiers in the field who have to carry heavy battery packs, or even civilian 'road warriors' commuting to meetings. If we had a lighter weight spintronic device which operates itself at a lower energy cost, and if we could make it on a flexible polymer display, soldiers and other users could just roll it up and carry it. We see this portable technology as a powerful platform for helping people."

The magnetic polymer semiconductor in this study, vanadium tetracyanoethanide, is the first organic-based magnet that operates above room temperature. It was developed by Epstein and his long-standing collaborator Joel S. Miller of the University of Utah. Postdoctoral researcher Jung-Woo Yoo called the new material an important milestone in spintronic research.

"Our main achievement is that we applied this polymer-based magnet semiconductor as a spin polarizer -- meaning we could save data (spin up and down) on it using a tiny magnetic field -- and a spin detector -- meaning we could read the data back," he said. "Now we are closer to constructing a device from all-organic material."

In the prototype device, electrons pass into the polymer, and a magnetic field orients them as spin up or spin down. The electrons can then pass into the conventional magnetic layer, but only if the spin of electrons there are oriented in the same way. If they are not, the resistance is too high for the electrons to pass. So the researchers were able to read spin data from their device based on whether the resistance was high or low.

Collaborators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison prepared a sample of conventional magnetic film, and Yoo and his Ohio State colleagues layered it together with the organic magnet to make a working device.

As a test, the researchers exposed the material to a magnetic field that varied in strength over time. To determine whether the material recorded the magnetic pattern and functioned as a good spin injector/detector, they measured the electric current passing through the two magnetic layers. This method is similar to the way computers read and write data to a magnetic hard drive today.

The results, Yoo said, were "textbook" -- they retrieved the magnetic data in its entirety, exactly as they stored it.

The patented technology should transfer easily to industry, he added. "Any place that makes computer chips could do this. Plus, in this case, we made the device at room temperature, and the process is very eco-friendly."

Coauthors on the paper included Chia-Yi Chen and Vladimir Prigodin of Ohio State, and H.W. Jang, C.W. Bark, and Chang-Beom Eom of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This research was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.

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World First for Quantum Memory Storage

World First for Quantum Memory Storage

  1:52:00 AM    Science Lover

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An Australian National University-led team has developed the most efficient quantum memory for light in the world, taking us closer to a future of super-fast computers and communication secured by the laws of physics.

Light passes through the crystal in the quantum memory 
experiment. (Credit: Image courtesy of Australian 
National University)

The team at the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering used a technique they pioneered to stop and control light from a laser, manipulating electrons in a crystal cooled to a chilly -270 degrees Celcius. The unprecedented efficiency and accuracy of the system allows the delicate quantum nature of the light to be stored, manipulated, and recalled.

"Light entering the crystal is slowed all the way to a stop, where it remains until we let it go again," explains lead researcher Morgan Hedges. "When we do let it go, we get out essentially everything that went in as a three-dimensional hologram, accurate right down to the last photon.

"Because of the inherent uncertainty in quantum mechanics, some of the information in this light will be lost the moment it is measured, making it a read-once hologram. Quantum mechanics guarantees this information can only be read once, making it perfect for secure communication."

The same efficient and accurate qualities make the memory a leading prospect for quantum computing, which has the potential to be many times faster and more powerful than contemporary computing.

In addition, the researchers say the light storage will allow tests of fundamental physics, such as how the bizarre phenomenon of quantum entanglement interacts with of the theory of relativity.

"We could entangle the quantum state of two memories, that is, two crystals," says team leader Dr Matthew Sellars. "According to quantum mechanics, reading out one memory will instantly alter what is stored in the other, no matter how large the distance between them. According to relativity, the way time passes for one memory is affected by how it moves. With a good quantum memory, an experiment to measure how these fundamental effects interact could be as simple as putting one crystal in the back of my car and going for a drive."

Dr Sellars' team has previously performed an experiment that 'stopped' light in a crystal for over a second, more than 1,000 times longer than was previously possible. He said that the team is now bringing together systems that combine the high efficiency with storage times of hours.

The research team includes Dr Jevon Longdell from the University of Otago and Dr Yongmin Li from Shanxi University. The findings are published in Nature.

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