Photo credit: Brenda Ahearn, Michigan Engineering
Engineers from the University of Michigan, in collaboration with researchers at Sandia National Laboratory, have developed innovative new solid-state computer memory that could one day withstand the blazing temperatures in fusion reactors, jet engines, geothermal wells and sweltering planets.
Unlike traditional silicon-based memory, this new material can store and rewrite information at temperatures over 1100°F (600°C), which is hotter than the surface of Venus and the melting temperature of lead. This is achieved by moving negatively charged oxygen atoms rather than electrons. Technically speaking, these oxygen ions move between two layers in the memory—the semiconductor tantalum oxide and the metal tantalum—through a solid electrolyte that acts like a barrier by keeping other charges from moving between them. In other words, the process is similar to how a battery charges and discharges, but instead of storing energy, this electrochemical process is used to store information.
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It could enable electronic devices that didn’t exist for high-temperature applications before. So far, we’ve built a device that holds one bit, on par with other high-temperature computer memory demonstrations. With more development and investment, it could in theory hold megabytes or gigabytes of data,” said Yiyang Li, U-M assistant professor of materials science and engineering and the senior corresponding author of the study published today in Device, a Cell Press journal.
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