Researchers from Taiwan and the University of California,
Berkeley, claim to have developed a new memory technology that
can exceed the speed of today's mainstream charge-storage memory
by up to 100X. According to a paper published in the current
issue of Applied Physics Letters, the device uses non-conducting
material that integrates horizontally aligned, non-overlapping
silicon nanodots (Si-QD), each of which has a diameter of about
3 nm and represents a single memory bit. The storage function is
provided via a metallic layer on top of the nanodot surface that
is employed as a metal gate to control the on and off stages of
the nanodots. The published paper claims that the operating
voltage of the non-volatile memory device is 7 volts and the
program/erase speed of the nanodots is less than 1 μs. The
storage process itself uses brief bursts of green laser light to
target specific regions of the metal gate layer and reach
individual nanodots. The scientists also claim that the
"materials and the processes use