Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:15 am
26.01.2007
Scientists claim to have created world's densest memory circuit
SAN JOSE, California: Researchers said they have created the world's densest memory circuit, one that is about 100 times denser than today's standard memory circuits while remaining as small as a human white blood cell.
Technology experts said the new circuit shows the potential for making integrated circuits at increasingly smaller sizes.
Scientists reported the development in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
The circuit has 160,000 bits of capacity, compared with previous generations of molecular circuits that were demonstrated at 64 bits.
But researchers point to the circuit's density as the real breakthrough: 100 billion bits per square centimeter, which the researchers said is about 100 times more tightly packed than current memory circuits.
The researchers described the 160,000 memory bits as being arranged like a large tic-tac-toe board, with 400 silicon wires crossed by 400 titanium wires and a layer of molecular switches in between.
Each bit is just 15 nanometers wide, compared with the most dense memory devices currently available that measure 140 nanometers in width, the researchers said. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.
Heath said it is the sort of device that a semiconductor company like Intel Corp. would contemplate making in 2020.
"This shows it is possible to manufacture really high-fidelity circuits at a density that is more molecular in scale than the way things have been done traditionally," he said.
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