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A new, energy-efficient memory out of Edinburgh University
and two Korean Institutes is said to be
a possible replacement for flash drives in a number of consumer electronics. The device uses a mechanical, carbon nanotube
arm that moves up-and-down to create or break currents.
Previous approaches at using carbon nanotubes as transistors
were foiled by having low operational speed and short memory retention. By using a mechanical approach, the team was
able make an arm that moves down to charge
and make contact with the gate. This way, the speed is only limited by the
mechanical resonance of the arm, which they estimate to be on the scale of "tens
of nanoseconds."
The team has already demonstrated a prototype that "managed
500 repeated programming and erasing cycles," and gained the attention of
Samsung.
Do you see a future for this new type of memory?
Source: The
Engineer
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