\n\tRice University, Houston, announces that its breakthrough silicon oxide technology for high-density, next-generation computer memory is one step closer to mass production, thanks to a refinement that will allow manufacturers to fabricate devices at room temperature with conventional production methods. This scanning electron microscope image and schematic show the design and composition of new RRAM memory devices.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe key ingredient of Rice’s RRAM is its dielectric component, silicon oxide. Silicon is the most abundant element on Earth and the basic ingredient in conventional microchips. Microelectronics fabrication technologies based on silicon are widespread and easily understood, but until Prof. James Tour discovered the conductive filament pathways in silicon oxide in 2010, the material wasn’t considered an option for RRAM.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe basic concept behind resistive memory devices is the insertion of a dielectric material \u2014 one that won’t normally conduct electricity \u2014 between two wires. When a sufficiently high voltage is applied across the wires, a narrow conduction path can be formed through the dielectric material.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe presence or absence of these conduction pathways can be used to represent the binary 1s and 0s of digital data. Research with a number of dielectric materials over the past decade has shown that such conduction pathways can be formed, broken and reformed thousands of times, which means RRAM can be used as the basis of rewritable random-access memory.<\/p>\n
\n\tRRAM is under development worldwide and expected to supplant flash memory technology in the marketplace within a few years because it is faster than flash and can pack far more information into less space. For example, manufacturers have announced plans for RRAM prototype chips that will be capable of storing about one terabyte of data on a device the size of a postage stamp \u2014 more than 50 times the data density of current flash memory technology.<\/p>\n