/ stevendepolo

Researchers from North Carolina State University have created a new type of memory device that's soft, flexible, works well in well environments and, most importantly, has the consistency of jelly.

Instead of brittle metals and plastics, the device is made from a liquid alloy of gallium and indium metals, set into water-based gels. This lets it function in wet environments, meaning that the technology could connect electronics to biological systems like cells, enzymes or tissue.

"These properties may be used for biological sensors or for medical monitoring," said Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State.

The individual components of this malleable memory device can be switched between two different states -- one that conducts electricity and one that doesn't. These can be used to represent the 1s and 0s used in the computer language binary.

Conventional electronics use electrons to create those handy 1s and 0s. This mushy memory uses charged molecules called ions to do the same thing.  In each of the device's circuits, a metal alloy acts as the circuit's electrode and sits on either side of a conductive piece of gel.

When the alloy is exposed to a positive charge it creates an oxidised skin that makes it resistive to electricity. When the electrode is exposed to a negative charge, the oxidised skin disappears, and it becomes conducive to electricity. These two states can be used to represent 0 and 1.

Right now the memory can't hold much data, but its memristor-like qualities means its at the forefront of next generation memory technology.

Memristors, or memory resistors, are devices that change their resistive state depending on the current or voltage history. Their low energy consumption and high data density and performance make them exciting properties in memory research.


  1. typo in first sentence "well in well" should be "well in wet".  

    Guy Mann
    Jul 15th 2011

    Random psycho
    Jul 18th 2011

Reply to a comment

Submit »

Latest on