British scientists come up with a memory that combines the virtues of DRAM and NAND

Researchers from Lancaster University (UK) have developed a new non-volatile memory. Allegedly, one hundred times less energy is needed for erasing and writing information in this memory than in the case of NAND or DRAM. At the same time, the high speed of the new memory allows using it instead of DRAM. The memory was called UK III-V.

The key to the new memory is the new transistor structure, and the memory cell built on it. We will clarify that while the parameters of these bricks of future memory are only modeled. To store information in a new memory, a floating gate is used, but it is not isolated by silicon oxide, as in modern memory, but by a tunnel transition at the interface between layers of different semiconductor materials: indium arsenide and aluminum antimonide. The structure also includes layers of other materials.

Unlike DRAM, the contents of UK III-V cells do not need to be rewritten periodically. The only question with which there is no clarity so far is the resource of new memory. If the UK III-V memory is not afraid of a large number of overwrites, it may well replace DRAM and NAND in computers and mobile devices of the future that turn on instantly and consume significantly less energy than modern samples.