{"id":6224,"date":"2016-04-11T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/formtek.com\/blog\/?p=6224"},"modified":"2016-03-09T08:19:55","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T16:19:55","slug":"computer-memory-researchers-work-to-develop-fast-dense-nonvolatile-mram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formtek.com\/blog\/computer-memory-researchers-work-to-develop-fast-dense-nonvolatile-mram\/","title":{"rendered":"Computer Memory: Researchers Work to Develop Fast, Dense, Nonvolatile MRAM"},"content":{"rendered":"

The goal of memory chip makers is to be able to fabricate a memory product that is nonvolatile, fast, dense, and cheap. \u00a0Current SRAM memory is fast. \u00a0Flash memory is dense. \u00a0And read-only memory (ROM) is cheap. \u00a0But creating memory that has\u00a0all these characteristics has so far eluded memory chip makers. \u00a0But now, a technology called magnetic random access memory (MRAM) may hold the secret.<\/p>\n

MRAM is based on being able to controls the magnetic ‘spin’ properties of electrons<\/a>. \u00a0With MRAM, the direction of electron spin is used to hold data. \u00a0Upwards spin represents ‘1’, and downwards spin ‘0’. \u00a0Standard memory requires an electrical charge while MRAM is based on magnetism. \u00a0That means that even when the power is turned off, the memory state is permanently retained. \u00a0Another advantage of MRAM is that it uses significantly less power which would means that devices like smartphones would be able to have longer battery lives.<\/p>\n

While there has been excitement around MRAM for some time, the methods used up until now for ‘flipping’ the spin of the electron have not been reliable and the magnetic field required to perform the flip has been expensive. But now researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU\/e) have developed a method that may be able to solve\u00a0this problem. \u00a0They describe the approach as \u00a0‘bending current’ and it is enabled by using an\u00a0anti-ferromagnetic material. \u00a0The new method is energy efficient and low cost. \u00a0One of the researchers on the project, Arno van den Brink, said that “this could be the decisive nudge in the right direction for superfast MRAM in the near future.”<\/p>\n

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The goal of memory chip makers is to be able to fabricate a memory product that is nonvolatile, fast, dense, and cheap. \u00a0Current SRAM memory is fast. \u00a0Flash memory is dense. \u00a0And read-only memory (ROM) is cheap. \u00a0But creating memory…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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