Brown fixes the dead layer in thin chip films
Published
Researchers at Brown University say they have removed a major barrier to ultra-low-power computer chips. They grew extremely thin films of bismuth ferrite, a multiferroic material, that stay electrically and magnetically active. The work, led by Lucas Caretta, an assistant professor of engineering at Brown, was published in Nature Materials.
Multiferroics can switch their electrical polarity with a small voltage, and their magnetism is linked to that polarity. That could let a chip store and read bits with much less power than today's parts. The catch has been size. When these materials get thin, they lose their useful behaviour, a problem called the dead layer. The team avoided it by growing the material as part of a three-layer system.
According to the Brown release, Caretta said the films can be made thin enough to be a few angstroms and still be ferroelectric and magnetic. The release also says the process gives the material new magnetic properties. It does not report a working chip.
Why it matters: the chip problem is getting these materials into devices that are only a few atoms thick. A lab film is still a long way from a chip in a phone or a data centre.
What do you think: how long before a material like this reaches a commercial chip?
Sources: ScienceDaily