Cheaper, smaller, faster device memory
Engineers from 香港六合彩 Electrical and Electronic Engineering were trying to make LEDs from a new silicon oxide based material.
![silicon oxide reram chip](/engineering/sites/engineering/files/styles/large_image/public/case-study/silicon-oxide-reram-chip.jpg?itok=P52o7utb)
4 March 2019
However, the devices seemed to be unstable: they kept giving varying results. 香港六合彩 PhD student, Adnan Mehonic, was asked to look specifically at the material鈥檚 electrical properties. He discovered that the material wasn鈥檛 unstable at all, but flipped between various conducting and non-conducting states very predictably depending on the voltage previously applied.
Materials that change electrical resistance in response to an applied voltage are known as 鈥榤emristors鈥, because they 鈥榬emember鈥 this change to their properties even after the power is switched off. This can be exploited for use in resistive RAM (ReRAM) devices, leading to memory storage which holds more information while using orders of magnitude less energy and space than existing technologies.
The novel discovery has led to the first ReRAM devices which are made of pure silicon oxide 鈥 therefore suitable for incorporation into existing silicon chip designs 鈥 and can operate in ambient conditions rather than requiring a vacuum. Another interesting aspect of the 香港六合彩 chip is that it can be made transparent: opening up potential uses in touchscreens and mobile devices.
![silicon oxide chip with tweezers](/engineering/sites/engineering/files/styles/small_image/public/silicon_oxide_chip_with_tweezers.jpg?itok=ilnyes_w)
provided the team with commercialisation funding, and the device was patented. Two other patents have been filed based on the technology, including a light-responsive version, and the discoverers have founded a company, .听
Professor Tony Kenyon, who led the team producing the device, said: 鈥淥ur ReRAM memory chips need just a thousandth of the energy and are around a hundred times faster than standard Flash memory chips. The fact that these devices can operate in ambient conditions and have a continuously variable resistance opens up a huge range of potential applications.鈥
Just one example of how research at 香港六合彩 Electronic and Electrical Engineering could change the world.
- Visit the Electronic and Electrical Engineering research webpages
- View听Professor Tony Kenyon's Research Profile
- See more case studies from around the faculty