Experimental computer memory could supersede flash

The technology, dubbed FeTRAM (ferroelectric transistor random access memory), is said to combine silicon nanowires with a so-called ferroelectric polymer, a material that switches polarity when electric fields are applied, making possible a new type of ferroelectric transistor.

‘It’s in a very nascent stage,’ said doctoral student Saptarshi Das, who is working with Joerg Appenzeller, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and scientific director of nanoelectronics at Purdue University’s Birck Nanotechnology Center. ‘We’ve developed the theory and done the experiment and also showed how it works in a circuit.’

The FeTRAM technology has non-volatile storage plus the potential to use 99 per cent less energy than flash memory, a non-volatile computer storage chip and the predominant form of memory in the commercial market.

‘However, our present device consumes more power because it is still not properly scaled,’ Das said. ‘For future generations of FeTRAM technologies one of the main objectives will be to reduce the power dissipation. They might also be much faster than another form of computer memory called SRAM.’