Mass production of revolutionary computer memory moves closer with ULTRARAM™ on silicon wafers for the first time
From: Lancaster University
January 6, 2022 -- A pioneering
type of patented computer memory known as ULTRARAM™ has been demonstrated on
silicon wafers in what is a major step towards its large-scale manufacture.
ULTRARAM™ is a novel type of memory with
extraordinary properties. It combines the non-volatility of a data storage
memory, like flash, with the speed, energy-efficiency and endurance of a
working memory, like DRAM. To do this it utilises the unique properties of
compound semiconductors, commonly used in photonic devices such as LEDS, laser
diodes and infrared detectors, but not in digital electronics, which is the
preserve of silicon.
Initially patented in the US, further
patents on the technology are currently being progressed in key technology
markets around the world.
Now, in a collaboration between the
Physics and Engineering Departments at Lancaster University and the Department
of Physics at Warwick, ULTRARAM™ has been implemented on silicon wafers for the
very first time.
Professor Manus Hayne of the Department
of Physics at Lancaster, who leads the work said, “ULTRARAM™ on silicon is a
huge advance for our research, overcoming very significant materials challenges
of large crystalline lattice mismatch, the change from elemental to compound
semiconductor and differences in thermal contraction.”
Digital electronics, which is the core
of all gadgetry from smart watches and smart phones through to personal
computers and datacentres, uses processor and memory chips made from the
semiconductor element silicon.
Due to the maturity of the silicon
chip-making industry and the multi-billion dollar cost of building chip
factories, implementation of any digital electronic technology on silicon
wafers is essential for its commercialisation.
Remarkably, the ULTRARAM™ on silicon
devices actually outperform previous incarnations of the technology on GaAs
compound semiconductor wafers, demonstrating (extrapolated) data storage times
of at least 1000 years, fast switching speed (for device size) and
program-erase cycling endurance of at least 10 million, which is one hundred to
one thousand times better than flash.
The research is reported in the
journal Advanced
Electronic Materials.
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