Posted on 12/26/2019 10:01:52 AM PST by Red Badger
Members of the research team that conducted the experiment, standing in front of the high-energy X-ray photoemission spectroscopy setup at the PETRA III synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany. Left to right: Andrei Gloskovskii, Yury Matveyev, Dmitry Negrov, Vitalii Mikheev, and Andrei Zenkevich. Credit: Andrei Zenkevich/MIPT
====================================================================
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, along with their colleagues from Germany and the U.S., have achieved a breakthrough in nonvolatile memory devices. The team came up with a unique method for measuring the electric potential distribution across a ferroelectric capacitor, which could lead to the creation of memory orders of magnitude faster than current flash and solid-state drives, withstanding 1 million times as many rewrite cycles. The paper was published in Nanoscale.
Hafnium dioxide-based memory is based on a dielectric already known to the microelectronics industry. Subjected to temperature treatment and alloying, a nanometer-scale hafnium dioxide layer can form metastable crystals that possess ferroelectric properties—that is, they "remember" the direction of the electric field applied to them.
The new memory cell is a zirconium-hafnium oxide film 10 nanometers thick interlaid between two electrodes. Its structure resembles a conventional electric capacitor. To make ferroelectric capacitors usable as memory cells, their remnant polarization has to be maximized; and to ensure that, engineers need a detailed understanding of the processes that occur in the nanofilm. This involves explaining how the electric potential is distributed across the film following voltage application and polarization reversal. Since the discovery of a ferroelectric phase in hafnium oxide 10 years ago, the potential distribution at the nanoscale has only been modeled, but not directly measured. The latter has been reported in the recent paper in Nanoscale.
The team employed a technique known as high-energy X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The specialized methodology developed at MIPT relies on the so-called standing-wave mode of the powerful monochromatic X-ray beam, which requires a synchrotron light source to produce. The machine used in the study is located in Hamburg, Germany. It was used to perform measurements on the hafnium oxide-based memory cell prototypes manufactured at MIPT.
"If used for the industrial production of nonvolatile memory cells, the ferroelectric capacitors developed in our lab could endure 10 billion rewrite cycles, which is 100,000 times more than state-of-the-art flash drives can survive," said study co-author Andrei Zenkevich, who heads the Laboratory of Functional Materials and Devices for Nanoelectronics at MIPT.
A further advantage of ferroelectric memory devices is that external radiation has absolutely no effect on them, unlike their semiconductor-based analogues. This means that the flash-like memory of the future could even weather cosmic ray exposure and operate in outer space.
“A further advantage of ferroelectric memory devices is that external radiation has absolutely no effect on them, unlike their semiconductor-based analogues. This means that the flash-like memory of the future could even weather cosmic ray exposure and operate in outer space.“
Which also would make it interesting to the military, rad hard, probably EMP resistant.
128 bits (carbon do-nuts) on a 4"x 4" frame. Each bit was a carbon do-nut with a positive wire going in one direction to set it to "1" and another wire that passed the opposite direction to set it to "0". These layers were part of a bigger assembly that totaled 1280 bits of memory. The entire assembly took up 2 square feet of space with all the cooling fans attached.
Now you can get terabytes on a device the size of your finger.
Yes, I remember ‘core memory’........looked like a sieve .....................
I think the last time I used it was on a P4 mobo. Long story short, it was the disk controller that was screwing up, and I replaced just the mobo, keeping everything else.
It still runs, too, with Fedora.
Fortunately I am running linux and can do a memory test from in the Grub boot menu. But I never really thought about how I should actually do it now and then other than just when it is broken. :)
I had forgotten that.
“....and a lot easier to handle. MicroSD cards are really easy to lose!...............”
lol
Different memory. RAM typically used in PCs is volatile.
Well, it is supposed to be “solid state” right? This gives the impression that it should be permanent. But in some cases solid state is apparently not quite so solid. :)
It doesn’t also deplete over time and use decreasing capacity?
Not that I’ve seen. Been building pcs since ‘85.
I honestly didn’t know for sure, that is why I asked. I too have been building computers since the 286 days, But never really thought about this. This memory depletion issue is a more recent concept for me so it made me curious about RAM also.
Ah, the 286 days. Remember upgrading people to 5 MB hard drives and 128K of RAM?
My go to non-volatile memory is ink on paper.
Access Time is a bit slow, though....................
That depends on file arrangement.
All depends on how the process can be scaled in a practical fashion.
COSTING 1000X as much for very high re-writable repetition counts not actually needed by 98% of the market gets you little
Other MAJOR factors like practical environmental limits to data stability come into play.
My usual engineering response : Sounds promising, but PLEASE let us know when you actually are able to make it work as a consumer good.
Indeed: 
That's almost $20,000 in today's money.
“The new memory cell is a zirconium-hafnium oxide film 10 nanometers thick interlaid between two electrodes. Its structure resembles a conventional electric capacitor. To make ferroelectric capacitors usable as memory cells, their remnant polarization has to be maximized; and to ensure that, engineers need a detailed understanding of the processes that occur in the nanofilm. This involves explaining how the electric potential is distributed across the film following voltage application and polarization reversal. Since the discovery of a ferroelectric phase in hafnium oxide 10 years ago, the potential distribution at the nanoscale has only been modeled, but not directly measured.”
Sounds REAL expensive...
That applies to ALL storage techs. Just understand the need to backup your systems, and hope for the best. A good invention would be to test and apprise the user when their storage medium is about to fail! And, of course, don’t forget some advertising about Viagra in there as well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.