A new printable, nonvolatile memory is the first printed memory device to measure up to flash memory in function.
The technology is a memristor, a mashup of memory and resistor that encodes information by switching between high-resistance and low-resistance phases. Printable mem-ristors have been developed before, but this is the first to challenge flash memory drives in metrics like write speed, operating voltage, endurance, and data retention time.
At just 4 bits, the memory is limited in capacity so far, but its developers hope it could be the basis for a digitally connected Internet of Things. Sprayed-on, bendable memory could become part of printable sensors, clothing, medication labels, and RFID tags.
“This has been a goal of printed electronics for at least a decade, if not two,” says Benjamin Wiley, a professor of chemistry at Duke Univ. “But the properties of printed materials are still not at the same level of conventional silicon-based electronics.”
Traditional flash drives encode information as a series of 1s and 0s. The drives consist of an array of silicon transistors, which exist in either a charged state, corresponding to a...
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