Advertisment

Superlattices crucial in commercializing RRAMs

author-image
CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

PORTLAND:A recent research has shown that superlattices may be crucial in commercialising resistive random access memories (RRAMs).

Advertisment

Superlattices are atomically thin alternating layers of different materials, the resulting semiconducting properties of which are remarkably different from those of either material alone.

Researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Missouri, the United States, claim that superlattices of magnetite and zinc ferrite are two new materials which may lead to quicker, smaller and more energy-efficient resistive random access memories (RRAMs).

Professor Jay Switzer and his colleagues at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, after a lot of experimentation, found that two superlattices – one of them consisting of different formulations of magnetite (an iron oxide) and the other superlattice material using different formulations zinc ferrite – can have their resistance switched from high to low. This ability makes these two superlattices useful for the next-generation memory chip, which is called resistive random access memory (RRAM).

Advertisment

In a report, Professor Switzer writes that the research team’s original idea was to make spintronic devices. But, by accident, the team found that the electron transport through the two superlattices could be switched, “thus making them a candidate for RRAMs.”

On the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, RRAMs have been recommended as the non-volatile memory for the 22-nanometer process technology node, below which traditional flash memory bit cells may not scale adequately.

Hewlett Packard, Sharp, and Fujitsu are some of the companies that work on RRAM designs.

semicon