Memory Devices

Computers and many electronic gadgets usually rely on stored information which is mainly data which can be used to direct circuit actions. The digital information is stored in memory devices. The long-term nanotechnology prospects for memory devices include carbon-nanotube-based memory, molecular electronics and memristors based on resistive materials such as TiO2.
Transparent memory
Transparent electronic memory has an advantage in that it would be useful in integrated transparent electronics, but achieving such a transparency produces limits in material composition and hinders processing and device performance.
Here we present a route to fabricate highly transparent memory using SiOx as the active material and indium tin oxide or graphene as the electrodes. The two-terminal, non-volatile resistive memory can also be configured in crossbar arrays on glass or flexible transparent platforms. The filamentary conduction in silicon channels generated in situ in the SiOx maintains the current level as the device size decreases, underscoring their potential for high-density memory applications, and as they are two-terminal based, transitions to three-dimensional memory packages are conceivable. As glass is becoming one of the mainstays of building construction materials, and conductive displays are essential in modern handheld devices, to have increased functionality in form-fitting packages is advantageous.
Principle
The transparent memory is based the principle that by pushing a strong charge through standard silicon oxide, channels of pure silicon crystals less than 5 nanometers wide are formed. The initial voltage applied strips oxygen atoms from the silicon oxide; lesser charges then repeatedly break and reconnect the circuit and make it into non-volatile memory. A smaller signal can be used to poll the memory state without altering it.
Rice University finding
Rice University researchers have developed transparent, flexible memories using silicon oxide as the active component even though silicon itself is not transparent if the density of the circuits is high enough and the researchers have developed a working two-terminal memory device that can be stacked in a three-dimensional configuration and attached to a flexible substrate using silicon oxide and graphene. Researchers are making highly transparent, non-volatile resistive memory devices based on the revelation that silicon oxide can be a switch. Transparent wires are needed to supply the voltages and hence grapheme which is transparent is used as the wiring for both the input and output electrodes on the plastic substrates. But on the glass substrates indium-tin-oxide (ITO) which is a transparent metallic electrode is used for the input and graphene on top for the output. Graphene makes up the device’s electrodes. With the exception of the leads that attach to the graphene electrodes, the devices are entirely metal-free. Because it’s easy to transfer graphene to various substrates, the researchers fabricated some devices on flexible plastic.
Uses
The technology would have a few advantages over current memory technologies as memory today is not transparent, hence cannot be used on glass while retaining the see-through properties and memory today does not work well on flexible substrates, like plastic.
Manufacturers are finding physical limits on current architectures when trying to fit millions of bits on small devices. Currently, electronics are made with 22 nanometer circuits. But at just 5 nanometers, a channel can be created to extend memory beyond Moore’s Law.
Combining silicon and graphene enables the scientists to extend the possibilities of where memory can be placed. The devices have potential that computer circuitry can double in power every two years, face the harsh conditions of radiation and also withstand heat of up to about 1,300 deg. F.
The present-day transistors used in memory like Flash memory can be substituted with their silicon oxide design. See-through cellphone is another possibility.