3D high density memory is coming

LAB JOCKEYS at Rice University have created two-terminal memory chips that use easy-to-find silicon to make memory both smaller and larger.

A paper has been published by the university researchers that shows how electrical current can be used to create extremely small and dense memory structures.

Jun Yao, a Rice student said that he was able to replace carbon in memory bits with a layer of insulating silicon oxide that sits between semiconducting sheets of polycrystalline silicon. These sheets form the top and bottom electrodes and when charged create a conductive pathway and form a chain of nano-sized silicon crystals.

Once formed, these "can be repeatedly broken and reconnected by applying a pulse of varying voltage," the University said.

Despite how it sounds, the beauty of the system is in its simplicity, which requires just two terminals - NAND flash, for example, needs three - and can create nanocrystal wires that are just 5 nanometers wide, or in other words, "far smaller than circuitry in even the most advanced computers and electronic devices," according to the researchers.

"The beauty of it is its simplicity," said Rice Professor James Tour, who added that the idea was initially considered too wacky for even Yao's peers. "Other group members didn't believe him," he said.

"It was a really difficult time for me, because people didn't believe it," Yao confirmed.

However, he does appear to have had the last laugh. "This is research," he added. "If you do something and everyone nods their heads, then it's probably not that big. But if you do something and everyone shakes their heads, then you prove it, it could be big. It doesn't matter how many people don't believe it. What matters is whether it's true or not."

Indeed, we say. µ