New memory device could allow 1 GB per cc storage

November 13, 2003 | Source: KurzweilAI

Engineers at Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard have invented a combination of materials that could lead to cheap and super-compact electronic memory devices for archiving digital images or other data.

The memory device combines low-cost conductive polymer plastic coating with very-thin-film, silicon-based electronics. It could theoretically store more than one gigabyte per cubic centimeter and could result in a single-use memory card that permanently stores data and is faster and easier to use than a compact disk. It could be very small because it would not involve moving parts.

The basic discovery behind the device was made by experimenting with polymer material called PEDOT, which is clear and conducts electricity. Researchers found that PEDOT conducts electricity at low voltages, but permanently loses its conductivity when exposed to higher voltages (and thus higher currents), making it act like a fuse or circuit breaker.

This finding led the researchers to use PEDOT as a way of storing digital information. A PEDOT-based memory device would have a grid of circuits in which all the connections contain a PEDOT fuse. A high voltage could be applied to any of the contact points, blowing that particular fuse and leaving a mix of working and non-working circuits.

These open or closed connections would represent zeros and ones and would become permanently encoded in the device. A blown fuse would block current and be read as a zero, while an unblown one would let current pass and act as a one.

Princeton University press release