Researchers at the University of Cambridge have created a new type
of microchip that allows information to move in three dimensions, left
to right, back to front and up and down.
Scientists from the University of Cambridge have created, for the first
time, a new type of microchip which allows information to travel in
three dimensions. Currently, microchips can only pass digital
information in a very limited way – from either left to right or front
to back. The research was published on, 31 January, in Nature.
Dr Reinoud Lavrijsen, an author on the paper from the University of
Cambridge, said: “Today’s chips are like bungalows – everything happens
on the same floor. We’ve created the stairways allowing information to
pass between floors.”
Researchers believe that in the future a 3D microchip would enable
additional storage capacity on chips by allowing information to be
spread across several layers instead of being compacted into one layer,
as is currently the case.
For the research, the Cambridge scientists used a special type of
microchip called a spintronic chip which exploits the electron’s tiny
magnetic moment or ‘spin’ (unlike the majority of today’s chips which
use charge-based electronic technology). Spintronic chips are
increasingly being used in computers, and it is widely believed that
within the next few years they will become the standard memory chip.
To create the microchip, the researchers used an experimental
technique called ‘sputtering’. They effectively made a club-sandwich on a
silicon chip of cobalt, platinum and ruthenium atoms. The cobalt and
platinum atoms store the digital information in a similar way to how a
hard disk drive stores data. The ruthenium atoms act as messengers,
communicating that information between neighbouring layers of cobalt and
platinum. Each of the layers is only a few atoms thick.
They then used a laser technique called MOKE to probe the data
content of the different layers. As they switched a magnetic field on
and off they saw in the MOKE signal the data climbing layer by layer
from the bottom of the chip to the top. They then confirmed the results
using a different measurement method.
Professor Russell Cowburn, lead researcher of the study from the
Cavendish Laboratory, the University of Cambridge’s Department of
Physics, said: “Each step on our spintronic staircase is only a few
atoms high. I find it amazing that by using nanotechnology not only can
we build structures with such precision in the lab but also using
advanced laser instruments we can actually see the data climbing this
nano-staircase step by step.
“This is a great example of the power of advanced materials science.
Traditionally, we would use a series of electronic transistors to move
data like this. We’ve been able to achieve the same effect just by
combining different basic elements such as cobalt, platinum and
ruthenium. This is the 21st century way of building things – harnessing
the basic power of elements and materials to give built-in
functionality.”
The research was funded by the European Research Council, the Isaac
Newton Trust, and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
(NWO).
