Bell Laboratories invented the transistor in 1947 ushering in an era of cooler, smaller electronics that used less power than bulky and fragile vacuum tube devices. The transistor acts as a binary switch to facilitate the flow of current from the off state to the on state. Radios, computers and phones were the first to replace vacuum tubes with new semiconductor technology. As technology got smaller (from transistors to memory machines) and smaller, the following decades saw the steady integration of silicon transistors into devices and computers, cell phones, watches, pacemakers and most Other devices. like any other device. “Electronic devices today depend on it for high-speed processing. and memory.
Enter the memristor, an electronic device that simulates a binary switch that uses two- and three-way matrix configurations, or cross bars, to adjust conduction based on current resistance. Dr. Mario Lanza, associate professor of materials science and engineering at KAUST, says that like transistors, it is only a matter of time before memristors become the new standard in switching technology, surpassing them. they. transistors in terms of speed and efficiency. Lanza is the lead author of a recently published review, Memory Technologies for Data Storage, Computation, Encryption, and Radio Frequency Communications, as part of a 75th anniversary paper. . The journal Science discovered the transistor. With findings from co-authors from industry and academia, the paper is the first to provide a comprehensive summary of the data supporting the readiness of memristor technology across materials and application. “The primary mnemonic can be made from four different materials that can be applied to four applications, for a total of 16 combinations, and this material covers them all,” says Lanza. “We’re compiling the specifications for how mnemonics work in these different configurations. You see what works, which is very interesting. Summarizing our results could have implications. big impact in this area.”
Lanza predicts that even more combinations may be possible in the future as memristors made of two-dimensional layered materials and perovskite rapidly improve their performance and additional applications can be designed. Go further
Current chip technology has reached the fundamental limit of quantum mechanics in terms of size. On-chip transistors cannot be less than the distance between atoms. Since minimization is not an option, mnemonic technology is evolving, combining vertical three-dimensional technology involving a nanomatrix of metal wires with a disconnector – memory – at each junction point. Applying voltage spikes breaks the insulation, creating a path for current to flow. By removing the voltage, the altered structure of the material remains as a conductive phantom, or the memory, when the voltage is reset, can return to its original state. In this way, the memristor acts as a bias switch that can be switched between conductive and non-conductive states. Lanza says this capability can be used for many different functions in an integrated chain. “The Memristor is like a Swiss Army knife. It can be used for many things,” Lanza said. “It’s a multi-state switch that I can set whether I want 25 steady or unstable, or ten or two. The grid can be programmed to do advanced calculations at blazing speeds. , less power consumption in more space and more applications – computation would otherwise require multiple transistors to do the same job.”
According to Lanza, the four types of non-silicon materials used to make memristors are metal oxides, such as hafnium dioxide; phase changes, ie chalcogens; magnetic, i.e. cobalt or iron; and iron, i.e. barium titanate. The main applications where memristors are used are storage, computation, communication, and encryption. Depending on the material used and the resistance applied, the performance can be adjusted to meet the requirements of different technologies.
The memristor’s 3D integration makes it possible to pack more devices while maintaining the smallest possible size, proving that size is not the holy grail of operational excellence. Lanza says the technology has worked with transistors before, but it’s a new platform for mnemonic devices. Although the concept of memristors was introduced in the 1970s, the technology has only just begun in the last decade. While memristors can already be found in some products, such as data centers and watches, Lanza said there are still many promising applications to be discovered and the industry is closely watching the technology. this technology. this to evaluate commercial applications beyond silicon semiconductor electronics. He attributes the scope and detail of the paper’s findings to the interdisciplinary nature of the group. Three of the co-authors are scientists from industry and six, including Lanza, from academia. Of the three industry authors, one is from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a multinational company responsible for making most of the world’s chips, including microchips. the smallest and the most advanced; and two of International Business Machines (IBM) – a leader in providing advanced information technology, operating in more than 170 countries. The academic authors who contributed to the paper provide expertise on specific memristor applications, including data encryption, an area where information on industry standards is lacking. Lanza says the document will fill those gaps, establishing the foundation of specification standards that industry and others can reference and refine.
With the market expected to reach $5.6 billion by 2026 – a 2% increase in the nearly $280 billion memory market, Lanza says.
