Researchers have produced a novel memory device set to rival transistor-switched silicon-based memory.

Conventional memory chips in electronic devices are made up of transistors, resistors and capacitors built in layers on a silicon wafer through a photolithographic process, during which precise patterns are etched on the silicon to form the chip. Today’s technology allows several million transistors to be built on a piece of silicon the size of a pinhead, but many researchers believe this form of memory has been pushed to its limits.

Researchers have been trying to create electromechanically driven switches small enough to rival transistor-switched silicon-based memory. Unlike transistors, electromechanically driven switches contain moving parts. Not only do electromechanical devices have excellent ON-OFF rations and fast switching characteristics, but the physical separation between the switch and capacitor in such devices means the data leakage problem is significantly reduced. However, until now, the technology has not been a viable alternative to silicon-based arrangements because it involved larger cells and more complex fabrication processes.

Professor Gehan Amaratunga and a team of international researchers have remedied these drawbacks by creating a novel nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switched capacitor based in vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs).

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The storage capacity of an iPod could be increased by 150,000 times with a molecule-sized switch developed by nanotechnology researchers at the University of Glasgow.

The switch enables data storage to be dramatically increased without having to make the storage device any bigger.

The work of Professor Lee Cronin and Dr Malcolm Kadodwala means 500,000 gigabytes could be squeezed onto a square inch. The current limit for the space is around 3.3 gigabytes. The researchers believe the development could see the number of transistors per chip rising from today’s limit of 200million to over one billion.

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