New Technology Mimics the Human Brain for Nano-Scale Memory Storage

Scientists may have found out a new way to create stable and reliable memory storage. They've engineered  a technology that mimics the human brain to bring ultra-fast, nano-scale data storage within reach.

The new, nanometer-thin stacked structure was first created using thin film, a functional oxide material more than 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. The new device relies on the idea of memristors, which is touted as a transformational replacement for current hard drive memories. Memristors have the potential to be fashioned into non-volatile, solid-state memory and offer building blocks for computing that could be trained to mimic the same synaptic interfaces as the human brain.

"The thin film is specifically designed to have defects in its chemistry to demonstrate a 'memristive' effect-where the memory element's behavior is dependent on its past experiences," said Sharath Sriram, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The structure we developed could be used for a range of electronic applications-from ultrafast memory devices that can be shrunk down to a few nanometers, to computer logic architectures that replicate the versatility and response time of a biological neural network."

That said, more research needs to be done when it comes to this device. What this latest work does do, though, is advance the search for next generation memory technology that can replicate the complex functions of human neural system. This could be huge for memory storage in future electronic devices.

The findings are published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.