DeviceGuru

Researchers at the University of Glasgow claim to have created a molecule-sized switch that offers vast increases in solid-state storage for devices such as MP3 players. The “breakthrough” molecule-sized switch can theoretically increase the number of transistors per chip from today’s limit of around 200 million to “well over a billion,” the team says.

Professor Lee Cronin and Dr. Malcolm Kadodwala believe their “radical” breakthrough allows storage densities of 500,000 GB (gigabytes) per square inch, more than 150 times that of current flash memory technologies. This would enable, for example, iPhones to have more than a terabyte of data storage.

The team’s method involves constructing “a functional nanocluster that incorporates two electron donating groups” that are placed 0.32 nm apart. The result is a “totally new type of molecular switching device,” according to Cronin.

“This is unprecedented and provides a route to produce new a molecule-based switch that can be easily manipulated using an electric field,” Cronin explains. “By taking these nano-scale clusters, just a nanometer in size, and placing them onto a gold or carbon, we can control the switching ability. Not only is this a new type of switchable molecule, but by grafting the molecule on to metal (gold) or carbon means that we can potentially bridge the gap between traditional semiconductor devices and components for nanoscale plastic electronics.”

Cronin says the resulting “molecule-sized switches” could result in data storage densities of around 4 petabits (4 x 10 ¹⁵ bits) per square inch.

“This breakthrough shows conceptually that this is possible (showing the bulk effect) but we are yet to solve the fabrication and addressing problems,” adds Cronin. “The fact these switches work on carbon means that they could be embedded in plastic chips so silicon is not needed and the system becomes much more flexible both physically and technologically. Since these switches are little balls of metal oxide they are made of similar stuff to normal semi-conductors but are much easier to manipulate as discrete molecular units.”

Further information on this research can be obtained from the University of Glasgow’s website.