Circuit
Polymer
microelectronics is potentially far less expensive to make than silicon
devices. Instead of multibillion-dollar fabrication equipment that etches
circuitry onto a silicon wafer, manufacturers could eventually use ink-jet
printers to spray liquid-polymer circuits onto a surface. Polymer memory comes
with an added bonus: unlike the memory in your PC, it retains information even
after the power is shut off. Such nonvolatile memory offers potential
advantages—not the least of which is the prospect of never having to wait
around for a PC to boot up—and a number of researchers are working on various
approaches. But polymer memory could potentially store far more data than other
nonvolatile alternatives.
Cost
Cost-wise, because the
polymer is solution-based and can easily be applied to large surfaces with
regular coating processes (even something as simple as printing a photograph on
an ink-jet printer), there is a huge advantage in terms of price for capacity.
The use of a solution based memory material opens up for better price/capacity
performance than hitherto experienced by the electronic industry. For the
hybrid silicon-polymer chips, the substrate circuitry with one memory layer
will typically cost the same to process per area unit as competing silicon
devices, however, since more bits can be packaged in that area, the cost per MB
will be substantially lower. The ability to expand capacity by stacking also
means that the cost per MB will reduce substantially. TFE believes that the
cost per MB will become so low that truly disposable memory chips will become
possible. One report says that this technology could take flash card prices to
10 per cent of what they are today.
Holographic storage using polymer
Holographic storage relies mainly on laser light and a
photosensitive material—usually a crystal or a polymer—to save data. It works
by splitting a laser beam in two. One beam contains the data and is referred to
as the "object beam"; the other holds the location of the data and is
known as the "reference beam." The two beams intersect to create an
intricate pattern of light and dark bands. A replica of this so-called
interference pattern gets engraved three-dimensionally into the photosensitive
material and becomes the hologram. To retrieve the stored data, the reference
beam is shone into the hologram, which refracts the light to replicate the data
beam.
Introduction
Imagine a time when
your mobile will be your virtual assistant and will need far more than the 8k
and 16k memory that it has today, or a world where laptops require gigabytes of
memory because of the impact of convergence on the very nature of computing.
How much space would your laptop need to carry all that memory capacity? Not
much, if Intel's project with Thin Film Electronics ASA (TFE) of Sweden works
according to plan. TFE's idea is to use polymer memory modules rather than
silicon-based memory modules, and what's more it's going to use architecture
that is quite different from silicon-based modules.
Present memory technology scenario
Digital Memory is and
has been a close comrade of each and every technical advancement in Information
Technology. The current memory technologies have a lot of limitations. DRAM is
volatile and difficult to integrate. RAM is high cost and volatile. Flash has
slower writes and lesser number of write/erase cycles compared to others. These
memory technologies when needed to expand will allow expansion only two
dimensional space. Hence area required will be increased. They will not allow
stacking of one memory chip over the other. Also the storage capacities are not
enough to fulfill the exponentially increasing need. Hence industry is
searching for “Holy Grail” future memory technologies for portable devices such
as cell phones, mobile PC’s etc. Next generation memories are trying a
tradeoffs between size and cost .This make them good possibilities for
development.
Limitations Of Polymer Memory
But turning polymer
memory into a commercial product won’t be easy. Memory technologies compete not
only on storage capacity but on speed, energy consumption and reliability. The
difficulty is in meeting all the requirements of current silicon memory chips.
Until new memory materials are able to
compete with the high performance of silicon, their notes, they are likely to
be limited to niche applications. One likely use is in disposable electronics,
where cost, rather than performance, is the deciding factor.
Abstract
Digital Memory is and has been a close comrade of each and every technical advancement in
Information Technology. The current memory technologies have a lot of
limitations. These memory technologies when needed to expand will allow
expansion only two dimensional space. Hence area required will be increased.
Conclusion
The fundamental strength, i.e. The stacking of memory layers
which yields maximum storage capacity in a given footprint is the main reason
why Polymer memory is highly preferred. The nonvolatileness and other features are in built in molecular
level and offers very high advantages in terms of cost. Polymers ,which are
once considered to be the main reason for pollution and refered to be removed
from the earth, has found a new area of utilization.
No comments:
Post a Comment