Quick thinking

A Lancaster University physicist has been given a Royal Society Brian Mercer Feasibility Award to support his work exploring the development of a novel type of computer memory based on the use of quantum dots.

'Conventional silicon-based computer memory will soon reach its limit, so we really need to find a solution with better performance,' said Dr Manus Hayne.

Flash memory, which is commonly used in USB drives, is a non-volatile memory based on charge-storage in an electrically isolated ‘floating gate’ placed between the conductive channel used for readout and the ‘control gate’.

Flash has been the memory technology driver since 2003, taking the leading position from dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), which is the capacitive-based memory used in PCs.

However, Hayne adds, the performance of Flash is rather mediocre. Charging up the floating gate requires pushing charge across the SiO₂ barriers that isolate it, making writing very slow and, eventually, damaging it.

Hayne's quantum dot (QD) memory, on the other hand, is a new memory concept that avoids the intrinsic problems associated with pushing charge through an insulating barrier.