Wrap Your Head Around Computer Chips You Can Wrap Around Your Finger
Scientists create bendable memory chips that could lead to flexible electronics
Are you reading this on your laptop? Are you ready to roll that laptop up and put it in your pocket? As we told you the other day, scientists revealed flexible coatings filled with e-ink that will turn just about any surface into a screen. Now other components of computers are breaking free from their silicon backbones and getting stretched. Next up: memory chips.
These new flexible memory chips are titanium oxide grafted onto what basically amounts to the transparencies used for overhead projectors. How’s that for repurposing technology you haven’t seen since grade school? What’s most amazing is that the structure of these memory chips are actually memristors – nanoscaled components that retain their resistance even when no current is passing though them – which could be the next step in faster computing and larger capacity, all packed in a drastically smaller size.
It’s unclear how much can be stored on this flexible memory, but once the chips are perfected, the creators claim that the process of producing them will be relatively simple and inexpensive. The implications on the future of electronics could be pretty wondrous. Imagine the design and functionality possibilities without the restraints of stiff, bulky computing. This could lead to tiny medical sensors or bendable computers. The future looks bright and twisted.