Magnetic spin transistor offers hard disk breakthrough

RESEARCHERS AT Oxford University said it has patented so-called "spin transistor" technology which could increase the density of dataheld on storage devices.

The transistors developed by a research team are sensitive to the quantum mechanical spin of the electrons travelling through them, making them sensistive to the local magnetic field strength, the researchers said.

But hard drive manufacturers face the difficulty of reading smaller regions. Currently, large magnetoresistive stacks are used in the read heads of disk drives.

The ability to replace this with a magnetically sensistive transistor replaces the noisy amplification stages that hard drives currently need.

Isis Innovation, at Oxford, said other applications for the spin transistor could include automotive sensors worth over $5 billion a year, and driven by the need to reduce engine emissions.

The boffins also say that such technology could be suitable for non-volatile memory magnetic devices. Here, a semi-permanent change in the local magnetisation of the device could represent a single bit. µ

L'INQ
Isis at Oxford