New computer memory design that could improve performance while reducing the energy demand of Internet

Researchers have created a new computer memory design that could improve performance while reducing the energy demand of the Internet and communications technologies, which are expected to use nearly a third of global electricity in the next decade.
A team led by the University of Cambridge has created a device that processes data in the same way that synapses in the human brain do. The devices are made of hafnium oxide, a material already used in the semiconductor industry, and small self-assembled barriers that can be raised and lowered to allow electrons to pass through.
This way of changing the electrical resistance in computer memory devices and allowing information processing and memory to co-exist could lead to the development of computer memory devices with significantly higher density, higher performance and lower power consumption. The findings were published in the journal Science Advances.
Our data-hungry world has led to an increase in energy demands, making it increasingly difficult to reduce carbon emissions. Over the next few years, artificial intelligence, internet usage, algorithms and other data-driven technologies are expected to consume more than 30% of global electricity.
“This explosion in energy requirements is largely due to the shortcomings of current computer memory technologies,” said first author Dr Markus Hellenbrand of Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. “In conventional computers, there’s memory on one side and processing on the other, and data is moved back and forth between them, which takes both energy and time.”
One potential solution to the problem of inefficient computer memory is a new type of technology known as resistive switching memory. Conventional memory devices are capable of two states: one or zero. However, a functional resistive switching memory device would be capable of a continuous range of states computer memory devices based on this principle would be capable of far greater density and speed.
“A typical USB flash drive based on continuous range, for example, would be able to hold 10 to 100 times more information,” Hellenbrand said.
Hellenbrand and his colleagues developed a prototype device based on hafnium oxide, an insulating material already used in the semiconductor industry. The problem with using this material for resistive switching memory applications is known as the uniformity problem. At the atomic level, hafnium oxide has no structure, with hafnium and oxygen atoms randomly mixed, making it difficult to use for memory applications.
However, the researchers found that by adding barium to the thin layers of hafnium oxide, some unusual structures, perpendicular to the plane of the hafnium oxide, began to form in the composite material.
These barium-rich vertical “bridges” are highly structured and allow the passage of electrons, while the surrounding hafnium oxide remains unstructured. Where these bridges meet the contacts of the device, an energy barrier has been created that the electrons can cross. The researchers were able to control the height of this barrier, which in turn changes the electrical resistance of the composite material.
“This allows multiple states to exist in the material, as opposed to conventional memory, which only has two states,” Hellenbrand said.
Unlike other composite materials that require expensive high-temperature manufacturing methods, these hafnium oxide composites self-assemble at low temperatures. The composite material showed a high level of performance and uniformity, making it very promising for next-generation memory applications.
A patent for the technology was filed by Cambridge Enterprise, the university’s commercialization arm.
“What’s really exciting about these materials is that they can act like synapses in the brain: they can store and process information in the same place as our brain can, which makes them very promising for the rapidly growing fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning,” he said .
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