Thursday, December 11, 2008

is it possible that mobile phone transparent ?

A group of scientists at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has fabricated a working computer chip that is almost completely clear. The new technology, called transparent resistive random access memory (TRRAM), is described in this week's issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters, which is published by the American Institute of Physics.

The new chip is similar in type to an existing technology known as complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) memory -- common commercial chips that provide the data storage for USB flash drives and other devices. Like CMOS devices, the new chip provides "non-volatile" memory, meaning that it stores digital information without losing data when it is powered off. Unlike CMOS devices, however, the new TRRAM chip is almost completely clear.

The Korean team is also developing a TRRAM using flexible materials. Technically, TRRAM device rely upon an existing technology known as resistive random access memory (RRAM), which is already in commercial development for future electronic data storage devices. RRAM is built using metal oxide materials, which are very transparent. What the Korean team did was to build a chip by sandwiching these metal oxide materials between equally transparent electrodes and substrates.

According to the Korean team, TRRAM devices are easy to fabricate and may be commercially available in just 3-4 years. Don't expect them to replace existing CMOS devices, however. Instead, Seo predicts, the new transparent devices will drive electronics in new directions.

0 comments: