Polymer Memory


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.
  

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