Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered a way of enhancing the capabilities of an emerging nanotechnology that could open the door to a new generation of electronics.
In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers show how they have pushed the memristor - a simpler and smaller alternative to the transistor, with the capability of altering its resistance and storing multiple memory states - to a new level of performance after experimenting with its component materials.
Traditionally, the processing of data in electronics has relied on integrated circuits (chips) featuring vast numbers of transistors - microscopic switches that control the flow of electrical current by turning it on or off.
Transistors have got smaller and smaller in order to meet the increasing demands of technology, but are now reaching their physical limit, with - for example - the processing chips that power smartphones containing an average of five billion transistors.
Memristors could hold the key to a new era in electronics, being both smaller and simpler in form than transistors, low-energy, and with the ability to retain data by 'remembering' the amount of charge that has passed through them - potentially resulting in computers that switch on and off instantly and never forget.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-01-technology-standard-future-electronics.html#jCp
Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered a way of enhancing the capabilities of an emerging nanotechnology that could open the door to a new generation of electronics.
In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers show how they have pushed the memristor - a simpler and smaller alternative to the transistor, with the capability of altering its resistance and storing multiple memory states - to a new level of performance after experimenting with its component materials.
Traditionally, the processing of data in electronics has relied on integrated circuits (chips) featuring vast numbers of transistors - microscopic switches that control the flow of electrical current by turning it on or off.
Transistors have got smaller and smaller in order to meet the increasing demands of technology, but are now reaching their physical limit, with - for example - the processing chips that power smartphones containing an average of five billion transistors.
Memristors could hold the key to a new era in electronics, being both smaller and simpler in form than transistors, low-energy, and with the ability to retain data by 'remembering' the amount of charge that has passed through them - potentially resulting in computers that switch on and off instantly and never forget.