Absrtact: 2011 DR - AIT, ECE

NEXT GENERATION MEMORY TECHNOLOGIES
ABSRTACT
Storage systems are inevitable for modern day computing. All known computing platforms
ranging from handheld devices to large super computers use storage systems for storing data
temporarily or permanently. Beginning from punch card which stores a few bytes of data, storage
systems have reached to multi Terabytes of capacities in comparatively less space and power
consumption. Computer data storage often called storage or memory refer to computer
components, devices and recording media that retain digital data used for computing for some
interval of time.
There are a large number of storage systems emerging which have advantages such as faster
storage of more data, powerful, high speed network and performance. These storage systems
have a wide range of applications which include computers and laptops , embedded memory
high speed networks ,security holograms and sensors.
2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 1

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO STORAGE SYSTEMS
Storage systems are inevitable for modern day computing. All known computing
platforms ranging from handheld devices to large super computers use storage systems for
storing data temporarily or permanently. Beginning from punch card which stores a few bytes of
data, storage systems have reached to multi Terabytes of capacities in comparatively less space
and power consumption.
Storage Definition
Here are a few definitions of storage when refers to computers.
A device capable of storing data. The term usually refers to mass storage devices, such as disk
and tape drives. In a computer, storage is the place where data is held in an electromagnetic or
optical form for access by a computer processor. Computer data storage; often called storage or
memory refer to computer components, devices and recording media that retain digital data used
for computing for some interval of time.Of these, I like the definition coined out by
wikipedia.com. Likes and dislikes apart, in basic terms, computer storage can be defined as
"device or media stores data for later retrieval". From the definition, we can see that the storage
device possess two features namely "storage" and "retrieval". A storage facility without retrieval
options seems to be of no use. A storage device may store application programs, Databases,
Media files etc....
As we see in modern day computers, storage devices can be found in many forms. Storage
devices can be classified based on many criterions. Of them, the very basic is as we learned in
schools ie; Primary storage and Secondary storage. Storage devices can be further classified
based on the memory technology that they use, based on its data volatility etc...

CHAPTER 2
CLASSIFICATION OF MEMORY
The following list gives a few classifications of memory devices.
- Primary and Secondary and Tertiary Storage
- Volatile and non-volatile storage
- Read only and Writable storage
- Random Access and Sequential Access storage
- Magnetic storage
- Optical storage
- Semiconductor storage
Primary and Secondary and Tertiary Storage
In simple words, primary storage is the storage device that is directly connected to the CPU and
store data temporarily during execution. i.e. CPU can directly access primary storage and stores
instruction and data for execution/processing.
The most popular example of this kind of memory is the RAM (Random Access Memory) that
we use in modern day computers. CPU registers, Caches and other memories connected to the
CPU local bus falls in this category. Primary storage devices are comparatively faster than all
other kinds of memory types. Usually primary storage devices are considered to be directly
connected to the processor. But in reality, modern computers employ components like Virtual
Memory Manager, DRAM controllers etc.. in between processor and the memory but the notion
of 'Direct connection' is still valid since these components are transparent to the processor .
Volatile memories are usually used as primary storage. The picture below shows a RAM module.

RAM Module, example for Primary Storage device On the contrary, Secondary storage may not
be directly accessible by the processor. And is usually used for more permenent storage of data.
This requires secondary storage devices to be non-volatile. Secondary storage devices are
connected to storage controllers and the CPU is required to talk to the controllers in order to
access information from secondary devices. The most popular example of secondary device is
the Hard disk. CD ROM, DVD ROM, USB mass storage devices, Floppy etc.. are also falls in
this category. Secondary storage devices are also called Mass Storage Devices since the capacity
of these devices are comparatively large. In contrast to Primary and Secondar storage, Tertiary
storage may not be directly connected to the CPU or the computer itself. Tertiary storage
mechanisms usually used for storage of large volume of data such as backups etc.. A commonly
used mechanism for Tertiary storage involves a large number of removable mass storage devices
stacked as a library and a robotic arm picks up the required media and loads in to a media reader.
Once the required information is read, the media is placed back in the library. The mechanical
delays associated with Tertiary Storage makes it the slowest of all storage types but largest in
capacity.
Volatile and non-volatile storage
As the name implies, volatile memory looses its contents when power supply is withdrawn. So
usually Volatile memories are used for temporary storage of data. In some exceptional cases,
volatile memory devices are used along with long life batteries to make semi-permenent storage
devices. Compared with non-volatile storage, Volatile storage devices are faster while both
reading and writing data. This makes these kinds of memories very suitable to be used as main
memories of computers. In fact, the memories we use in computers (RAM) are volatile devices.
Non-volatile storage devices retain the contents even in absence of active power source. This
makes non-volatile devices suitable for long term permenent data storage. Non-volatile devices
usually available in large capacities. Hard Disks, CD ROM, Floppy disks, Flash, ROM etc.. are
examples of non-volatile memory devices. Non-volatile storage devices are slower when
compared to volatile storage devices. But some non-volatile can faster during read operation and
slower during write operation. Semiconductor non-volatile memory devices fall in this category.

Read only and Writable storage
Read only storage devices only allows contents to be read from and doesn't allow the contents to
be modified. Meanwhile, Writable storage devices allow both content retrieval as well as content
modification. Read only devices are usually used for long term permenent storage where
modification of data is not necessary. CD ROM, DVD etc are examples of Read Only Storage
devices. Some Read Only Storage devices comes with factory programmed data which you can
only read but not modify. There is another class of devices called Write Once Read Multiple
(WORM) devices which allows us to write data to it one and only one time and allows any
number of subsequent reads. CD-R and DVD-R are technically comes under this category.
Random Access and Sequential Access storage
Random Access storage devices allow retrieval of content from any location in the same amount
of time. i.e. Latency (The time taken to access a particular location in storage) is independent of
content's location. RAM used in computers is an example of Random Access Memory. In
sequential access storage devices, data can be accessed in sequential manner only. And the time
taken to read from a particular location will be dependant on the location last accessed. Example
of a sequential access device is the Tape storage device. Sequential access devices are usually
used for backup purpose only, where frequent access of information is not required.
Magnetic storage
Magnetic storage devices store information in the form of magnetic field on magnetically coated
surface. Magnetic storage devices fall in the category of non-volatile devices. This makes
magnetic storage devices to be useful for long term data storage. Hard disks, Floppy disks and
tape devices are examples of magnetic storage devices. Data is written to magnetic media with
the help of electromagnetic heads. The same head is usually used also for retrieval of data.
Though magnetic storage medias can hold large amount of data, these are considered to be bulky
and not usable for mobile applications. But technological advancements made it possible to
create large capacity magnetic storage devices with small size. An example for this is Apple's
ipod classic which is available with a built in hard disk with a capacity as large as 160 GB for
music/video storage.

Optical storage
Optical storage devices store data on reflective polycarbonate discs in the form of pits and
bumps. Data is recorded on the disc by pointing modulated laser beam on to the rotating disc.
This makes a series of tiny pits which doesn't reflect light and bumps that reflect light. For
reading the data, a low power laser beam is focused to the track and the reflected beam is
directed to a photo diode. The photo diode detects the presence of pits and bumps from the
reflected laser beam and convert it in to bits and bytes of information.
Semiconductor storage
Semiconductor storage devices store data in tiny memory cells made of very small transistors
and capacitors made of semiconductor materials such as silicon. Each cell can hold one bit of
information and an array of cells stores large chunk of information. Semiconductor storage
devices are volatile.

CHAPTER 3
CHALLENGES IN MEMORY TECHNOLOGY
PC technologies continue to evolve as performance demands grow, and system memory

technology is no exception. Throughout the history of the PC, memory technology has steadily
progressed in capacity and performance to meet the increasing requirements of other PC
hardware subsystems and software. In the past, there have been relatively clear industry
transitions from one memory technology to its successor. However, today there are multiple
choices— PC133, RDRAM, and Double Data Rate (DDR)— and more choices may exist in the
future as providers of DRAM system memory accommodate a growing variety of platforms and
form factors. These range from small handheld devices to high-end servers, each with different
power, space, speed, and capacity requirements for system memory. This seminar focuses on PC
system memory issues and trends. It begins by reviewing the role of memory in the system and
the key memory parameters that affect system performance. This report then presents the basics
of memory technology and today's alternatives. Finally says about the key upcoming transitions
in the DDR and Rambus memory technologies.
Role of memory in a system
The primary role of memory is to store code and data for the processor. Although caching and
other processor architecture features have reduced its dependency on memory performance, the
processor still requires most of the memory bandwidth. Figure 1 shows the major consumers of
memory bandwidth: the processor, graphics subsystem, PCI devices (such as high-speed
communications devices), and hard drives. Other lower bandwidth interfaces such as the USB
and parallel ports must also be accommodated. The memory hub provides an interface to system
memory for all of the high bandwidth devices. The I/O hub schedules requests from other
devices into the memory hub. Memory plays a key role in the efficient operation of I/O devices
such as graphics adapters and disk drives. In a typical system, most data transfers move through
system memory. For example, when transferring a file from the network to a local disk, the PCI
host adapter transfers data from the network to memory. This is commonly referred to as direct
memory access (DMA), as opposed to programmed I/O (PIO), in which the processor is directly
involved in all data transfers. The processor, after performing any required formatting

operations, initiates a transfer from memory to local disk storage. Once initiated, the data is
transferred directly from memory to disk without any further processor involvement. In
summary, the system memory functions as the primary storage component for processor code
and data, and as a centralized transfer point for most data movement in today's system.
Performance Factors
Memory parameters that impact system performance are capacity, bandwidth, and latency.
Capacity
How does capacity impact system performance? The first step in answering this question is to
describe the memory hierarchy. Table 1 shows the capacities and speeds of various storage
mechanisms found in a typical mainstream desktop computer in service today.
These storage mechanisms range from the very fast, but low-capacity, Level 1 (L1) cache
memory to the much slower, but higher-capacity, disk drive. Ideally, a computer would use the
fastest available storage mechanisms—in this case L1 cache—for all data. However, the laws of
physics (which dictate that higher capacity storage mechanisms are slower) and cost
considerations prevent this. Instead, PCs use a mechanism called “virtual memory,” which
makes use of the L1 and L2 cache, main system memory, and the hard drive. The virtual memory
mechanism allows a programmer to use more memory than is physically available in the system,
and to keep the most frequently and recently used data in the fastest storage. When more
memory is needed than is available in system memory, some data or code must be stored on disk.
When the processor accesses data not available in memory, information that has not been
accessed recently is saved to the hard drive. The system then uses the vacated memory space to
complete the processor's request. However, disk access is comparatively slow and system
performance is significantly impacted if the processor must frequently wait for disk access.
Adding system memory reduces this probability. The amount of capacity required to reduce disk
activity to an acceptable level depends on the operating system and the type and number of
active applications, including background tasks. Semiconductor technology has provided
capacity improvements consistent with Moore's law—greater than a 1.4x compound annual
growth rate—and the outlook is for similar increases over the next few years. These increases
have exceeded the requirements of mainstream desktop PCs and, as a result, the number of

memory slots is being reduced from three to two in many of today's client platforms. However,
servers and high-end workstations continue to take advantage of the capacity increases.
Band
width
Memory bandwidth is a measure of the rate at which data can be transferred to and from
memory, typically expressed in megabytes per second (MB/sec). Peak bandwidth is the
theoretical maximum transfer rate between any device and memory. In practice, peak bandwidth
is reduced by interference from other devices and by the “lead-off” time required for a device to
receive the first bit of data after initiating a memory request. There should be adequate memory
bandwidth to support the actual data rates of the highest-speed devices and to provide enough
headroom to prevent significant interference between devices. In many systems, memory and I/O
hubs are designed to accommodate peak requirements by buffering transfers and scheduling
conflicting memory requests. Table 2 shows the data rates of various system components over
the last 4 years. Although the need for memory bandwidth is not directly proportional to these
data rates, the upward trend is obvious. Memory systems have done a fairly good job of keep
with system requirements over this period of time, moving from 533 MB/sec to 2133 MB/sec.
Dual-memory interfaces using Rambus or DDR memory boost bandwidth to 3200 MB/sec.

Latency
Latency is a measure of the delay from the data request until the data is returned. It is a function
of peak bandwidth, lead-off time, and interference between devices. In general, processors are
more sensitive to latency than bandwidth because they work with smaller blocks of data and can
waste a significant number of clocks waiting for critical data. In contrast, I/O data transfers are
relatively long, and bandwidth is a more important consideration than latency. Data transfers
moving to and from system memory must pass through the memory hub and, in many cases, the
I/O hub. These components are collectively referred to as the chip set or core logic, and are
major contributors to the latency from a device source.

CHAPTER 4
MEMORY TECHNOLOGIES
Holography
Holographic data storage refers specifically to the use of holography to store and retrieve digital
data. To do this, digital data must be imposed onto an optical wave front, stored holographically
with high volumetric density, and then extracted from the retrieved optical wav front with
excellent data fidelity. A hologram preserves both the phase and amplitude of an optical wave
front of interest called the object beam by recording the optical interference pattern between it
and a second coherent optical beam the reference beam .
The reference beam is designed to be simple to reproduce at a later stage (A common reference
beam is a plane wave a light beam that propagates without converging or diverging). These
interference fringes are recorded if the two beams have been overlapped within a suitable
photosensitive media, such as a photopolymer or inorganic crystal or photographic film. The
bright and dark variations of the interference pattern create chemical and/or physical changes in
the media, preserving a replica of the interference pattern as a change in absorption, refractive
index or thickness. When the recording is illuminated by a readout beam similar to the original
reference beam, some of the light is diffracted to “reconstruct” a copy of the object beam. If the
object beam originally came from a 3-D object, then the reconstructed hologram makes the 3-D
object reappear.
Collinear Holography
HVD uses a technology called ‘collinear holography’, in which two laser rays, one blue-green
and one red, are collimated into a single beam. The role of the blue-greenlaser is to read the data
encoded in the form of laser interference fringes from the holographic layer on the top, while the
red laser serves the purpose of a reference beam and also to read the servo info from the
aluminum layer – like in normal CDs – near the bottom of the disk. The servo info is meant to
monitor the coordinates of theread head above the disk (this is similar to the track, head and
sector information on a normal hard disk drive).

Recording Data
A simplified HVD system consists of the following main components:
Blue or green laser (532-nm wavelength in the test system)
Beam splitter/merger
Mirrors
Spatial light modulator (SLM)
CMOS sensor
Polymer recording medium.
The process of writing information onto an HVD begins with encoding the information
into binary data to be stored in the SLM. These data are turned into ones and zeroes represented
as opaque or translucent areas on a "page" -- this page is the image that the information beam is
going to pass through. When the blue-green argon laser is fired, a beam splitter creates two
beams. One beam, called the object or signal beam, will go straight, bounce off one mirror
andtravel through a spatial-light modulator (SLM). An SLM is a liquid crystal display(LCD) that
shows pages of raw binary data as clear and dark boxes. The information from the page of binary

code is carried by the signal beam around to the light-sensitive lithium-niobate crystal. Some
systems use a photopolymer in place of the crystal. A second beam, called the reference beam,
shoots out the side of the beam splitter and takes a separate path to the crystal
fig 4.1 RECORDING DATA
Reading Data
To read the data from an HVD, you need to retrieve the light pattern stored in the hologram. In
the HVD read system, the laser projects a light beam onto the hologram – a light beam -- a light
beam that is identical to the reference beam. An advantage of a holographic memory system is
that an entire page of data can be retrieved quickly and at one time. In order to retrieve and
reconstruct the holographic page of data stored in the crystal, the reference beam is shined into

the crystal at exactly the same angle at which it entered to store that page of data. Each page of
data is stored in a different area of the crystal, based on the angle at which the reference beam
strikes it. The key component of any holographic data storage system is the angle at which the
reference beam is fired at the crystal to retrieve a page of data. It must match the original
reference beam angle exactly. A difference of just a thousandth of a millimeter will result in
failure to retrieve that page of data. During reconstruction, the beam will be diffracted by the
crystal to allow there creation of the original page that was stored. This reconstructed page is
then projected onto the CMOS, which interprets and forwards the digital information to a
computer.
MAGNETIC MEMORY
All materials have an inherent magnetic character arising from the movements of their electrons.
Since dynamic electric fields induce a magnetic field, the orbit of electrons, which creates atomic
current loops, results in magnetic fields. An external magnetic field will cause these atomic
magnetic fields to align so that they oppose the external field. This is the only magnetic effect
that arises from electron pairs. If a material exhibits only this effect in an applied field it is
known as a diamagnetic material. Magnetic properties other than diamagnetism, which is present
in all substances, arise from the interactions of unpaired electrons. These properties are
traditionally found in transition metals, lanthanides, and their compounds due to the
unpaired d and f electrons on the metal. There are three general types of magnetic behaviors:
paramagnetism, in which the unpaired electrons are randomly arranged, ferromagnetism, in
which the unpaired electrons are all aligned, and antiferromagnetism, in which the unpaired
electrons line up opposite of one another. Ferromagnetic materials have an overall magnetic
moment, whereas anti ferromagnetic materials have a magnetic moment of zero. A compound is
defined as being ferrimagnetic if the electron spins are orientated antiparrallel to one another but,
due to an inequality in the number of spins in each orientation, there exists an overall magnetic
moment. There are also enforced ferromagnetic substances (called spin-glass-like) in which
antiferromagnetic materials have pockets of aligned spins.
Semiconductor spintronics devices combine advantages of semiconductor with the concept of

magnetoelectronics. This category of devices includes spin diodes, spin filter, and spin FET. To
make semiconductor based spintronic devices, researchers need to address several following

different problems. A first problem is creation of inhomogeneous spin distribution. It is called

spin-polarisation or spin injection. Spin-polarised current is the primary requirement to make
semiconductor spintronics based devices. It is also very fragile state. Therefore, the second
problem is achieving transport of spin-polarised electrons maintaining their spin-orientation .
Final problem, related to application, is relaxation time. This problem is even more important for
the last category devices . Spin comes to equilibrium by the phenomenon called spin relaxation.
It is important to create long relaxation time for effective spin manipulation, which will allow
additional spin degree of freedom to spintronics devices with the electron charge . Utilizing spin
degree of freedom alone or add it to mainstream electronics will significantly improve the
performance with higher capabilities.
The third category devices are being considered for building quantum computers. Quantum
information processing and quantum computation is the most ambitious goal of spintronics
research. The spins of electrons and nuclei are the perfect candidates for quantum bits or qubits.
Therefore, electron spin and nuclear based hardwares are some of the main candidates being
considered for quantum computers.
Spintronics based devices offers several advantages over conventional charge based devices.
Since magnetized materials maintain their spin even without power, spintronics based devices
could be the basis of non-volatile memory device. Energy efficiency is another virtue of these
devices as spin can be manipulated by low-power external magnetic field. Miniaturization is also
another advantage because spintronics can be coupled with conventional semiconductor and
optoelectronic devices.
However, temperature is still a major bottleneck. Practical application of spintronics needs

room-temperature ferromagnet in semiconductors. Making such materials represents a
substantial challenge for materials scientists.

Spin based Devices
The present status of spintronics devices at the commercial level is limited to giant
magnetoresistance (GMR) based devices. In GMR based memory devises electron spin play
passive role . It is limited to detect the change of magnitude of resistance depending on direction
of the spin . The change in resistance is controlled by a local or an external magnetic field . But,
it is predicted that spintronics can go beyond this passive spin device by integrating electron spin
into conventional semiconductors. Thus, the technology based on spintronics may replace
conventional semi-conducting devices by introducing active control of electron spin.
Spin transistors
The spin-transistors exploit electron spin either by spin-valve effect or by active control of
electron spin . The design of transistor is similar to that of GMR devices. It consists of three
layers, out of which the non-magnetic layer is sandwiched between the two ferromagnetic layers
Johnson was the first to propose about spin-valve transistor. As per him, the first magnetic layer
acts as a spin injector or emitter while the second acts as a spin detector or collector . The non-
magnetic layer acts as a base . The magnetization direction of the collector can be changed by the
application of an external magnetic field . When the voltage is applied across the emitter-base, it
generate electrons with either spin-up or spin-down . When the magnetization direction of
emitter and collector is parallel, the current can flow throw the base to the collector . The
electrons face high resistance when the relative magnetization direction is opposite. Thus, device
acts as one-way switch . Electron spin plays passive role in Johnson’s spin-valve transistor.

Figure 3 Dutta-Das field effect transistor; at zero gate voltage, electron preserves spin state in
transport channel (a) it enables current flow from source to drain. With applied gate voltage,
electrons change their spin state from parallel to anti parallel to the direction of magnetization of
ferromagnetic layer (b) this offers high resistance to flow of current. Therefore, electron
scattering occurs at drain and no current flow from source to drain .
The first model of transistor using active control of electron spin was proposed by Datta and Das.
In the Datta-Das field effect transistor, the non-magnetic layer acts as a gate while two
ferromagnetic layers act as source and drain respectively (fig 2(a)) . The gate plays an important
role in Datta-Das field effect transistor. The gate modifies electron spin by generating effective
magnetic field and thereby in switching the transistor . When voltage is applied to the gate, it
generates effective magnetic field (fig 2(b)). Thus, by modifying gate voltage one can modify
electron spin [4]. The electrons ballistically transport in transport channel, if its spin is parallel to
the magnetization direction of drain (spin detector) . Otherwise, it will scattered away . The
control of charge current in spin transistor is similar to the conventional transistors [2, 4]. But,
the spin transistors possess advantage over conventional transistors. They are smaller in size, and
consume less power . Still, the spin-transistors are exist is in prototype models because of
theoretical limitation related to spin behavior in different materials.

Manipulation of Electron Spin
Spintronic devices are based on careful manipulation of the electron spin. The spin can be easily
manipulated by applying external magnetic field or by shining polarized light . In general, the
scheme of spin manipulation works fundamentally on: (1) generation of spin-polarized electron,
(2) injection and transportation of the spin-polarized electron, and (3) detection of the spin-
polarized carriers with information.
Generation of spin polarization
The generations of spin-polarized electron spins mean generation of spin polarized current. This
spin polarized current carries non-equilibrium spin population. The Spintronics devices detect
the distribution of spin-up and spin-down electrons in spin polarized current to control the
current . This phenomenon of controlling current in spintronic device makes it suitable to act as
electronic switch of transistor. Thus, the control of current is then either a control of phase of
electron spin or spin-population. It can be generated by transport, optical, and resonance methods
or by their combination . Figure 2 shows the schematic representation of generation of spin-
polarized current by transport method.
Spin injection and spin-polarized transport
The spintronic device requires efficient transport of generated non-equilibrium spin (spin-
polarized current) across the electrode/sample interface. The transport of non-equilibrium spin
across interface is called spin injection. The non-equilibrium spin can be injected by driving
ordinary current through ferromagnetic electrode to sample. The current can be driven in plane
plan of interface called 'current in plane (CIP) geometry' (fig 4(a)) or perpendicular to the
interface called 'current perpendicular to plane (CIP) geometry' (fig 4(b)). The spin can be also
injected by optical method. The efficiency of spin injection is determined by rate of
accumulation of non-equilibrium spin in sample. There are several proposed ways to transport
spin-polarized current across interface. These are: (1) formation of Ohmic contact between
electrode-sample interface, (2) Ballistic electron injection, (3) electron tunneling from space
charge region and, (4) Hot spin injection.

Ohmic injection
The most basic approach to spin injection is through the perfect Ohmic contact between
ferromagnetic/non-magnetic (F/N) interfaces (fig 4 (a)) . The interface can be produce by taking
metals or semiconductors or superconductors as non-magnetic region with ferromeget. The
degree of spin injection in non-magnetic region depends on the ratio of the conductivities of
ferromagnetic region (F) and non-magnetic region (N) . For typical conductivity mismatch, when
conductivity of F region ≤ N region, higher the spin injection efficiency (fig 4(b) and (c)). When
conductivity of F region ≥ non-magnetic region, smaller the spin injection efficiency. This
phenomenon is called “conductivity mismatch” . In the case of ferromagnet/semiconductor
interface, Ohmic contacts resulted from the doping of semiconductor surface. However, doping
leads to loss of spin polarization by spin-flip scattering . The electrochemical potential of N
region increases with spin injection. The difference of spin dependent electrochemical potentials
generates effective resistance δR on either side of F/N interface. In superconductor/F interface,
increase in total resistance with spin injection results in switching superconducting state to
normal state of much higher resistance.
Ballistic electron injection
The ballistic spin injection works on principle of GMR effect and electrons are dynamically
transported. The ballistic transport is favorable in ferromagnet/non-magnet/ferromagnet (F/N/F)
interfaces. The F/N/F interface is formed by sandwiching a non- ferromagnetic layer of finite
thickness between two finite ferromagnetic layers . Fully ballistic transport takes place when
ferromagnetic layers aligned in the same direction . This condition provides low resistance path
to the spin polarize current. The probability of spin polarized electron back flow or reflection is
less in ballistic transport, once it enters in the non-magnetic region. The transmission probability
of ballistic transport depends on difference of two spin conduction sub bands of the ferromagnet
and the conduction band of the semiconductor .
Spin detection
Spin detection typically depends on the sensing the changes in the signal due to spin injection .
The injection of non-equilibrium spin either induces voltage or changes resistance corresponding
to buildup of the non-equilibrium spin . This voltage can be measured in terms of change in

resistance by potentiometric method; while change in resistance can be measured in terms of

voltage by balancing Wheastone Bridge . The transport and optical methods of spin detection are
most widely adopted to detect spin. The efficiency of spin detection in transport method is
depends on interface properties. Therefore, spin detection is low and also suffered from difficulty
discuss above . The optical spin detection technique is well established. The spin can be detected
by determining the helicity of emitted light from LEDs connected with interface.
Spin Relaxation
Non-equilibrium spin accumulates in non-magnetic region due to process of spin injection. It

comes to equilibrium by the phenomenon called spin relaxation . The rate of accumulation of
non-equilibrium spin depends on the spin relaxation . Electrons can remember their spin state for
finite period of time before relaxing. That finite time period is called ‘Spin lifetime’ . Longer
lifetime is more desirable for data communication application while shorter for fast switching .
The distance traveled by the electron without loosing spin state is called ‘Spin diffusion length’ .
It is most important variable in spintronic devices, which determines maximum allowable
thickness of the non-magnetic region in device. It is also depend on spin lifetime . There are four
proposed ways by which conduction electrons of metals and semiconductors relax: (A) The
Elliott-Yafet mechanism, (B) The D’yakonov-Perel’ mechanism, (C) The Bir-Aronov-Pikus
mechanism, and (D) hyperfine-interaction .
Spin Relaxation
Non-equilibrium spin accumulates in non-magnetic region due to process of spin injection. It

comes to equilibrium by the phenomenon called spin relaxation . The rate of accumulation of
non-equilibrium spin depends on the spin relaxation . Electrons can remember their spin state for
finite period of time before relaxing. That finite time period is called ‘Spin lifetime’ . Longer
lifetime is more desirable for data communication application while shorter for fast switching .
The distance traveled by the electron without losing spin state is called ‘Spin diffusion length’ .
It is most important variable in spintronic devices, which determines maximum allowable
thickness of the non-magnetic region in device. It is also depend on spin lifetime . There are four
proposed ways by which conduction electrons of metals and semiconductors relax: (A) The

Elliott-Yafet mechanism, (B) The D’yakonov-Perel’ mechanism, (C) The Bir-Aronov-Pikus

mechanism, and (D) hyperfine-interaction.
SPINTRONIC TECHNOLOGY is already in your computer, at least in a primordial incarnation.

Modern hard disk drives have a read head that relies on an effect known as giant magneto-
resistance, or GMR, which was discovered by French and German researchers in the late 1980’s.
Basically, when the spins of electrons in the read head point in the same direction as those
creating the small magnetic domains on the disk, the head’s electrical resistance decreases. When
the spins are in opposite directions, the resistance increases slightly. More recently. engineers
have developed even better read heads that rely on tunnel magnetoresistance, a kind of
enhanced GMR. It is this ability to sense very feeble magnetic fields that has allowed hard-disk
makers to keep doubling the capacities of hard- disk drives on a schedule that’s even out- paced
Moore’s Law. Many advances in spintronics resulted from two big research programs that the
U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, funded in the 1990s. The first
one produced the earliest MRAM prototypes. These devices used memory cells consisting of
magnetic tunnel junctions: two layers of a ferromagnetic material like iron separated by an
extremely thin, nonconductive barrier of magnesium oxide. When the spins of the electrons in
the two ferromagnetic layers point in the same direction ,in other words, when their
magnetizations are aligned,the electrical resistance across the junction decreases; when the spins
point in different directions, the junction becomes more resistant to current. The prototypes used
this change in resistance to sense whether a 1 or a 0 was stored. Some MRAM chips built at the
time contained millions of memory cells, each with dimensions of about 150 nanometers, an
impressive achievement back then. But the researchers soon discovered that going below too nm
was not going to be easy. The problem had to do with the method they used to change bits,
which was to drive currents through electrodes connected to each memory cell, creating a
magnetic field that oriented the spin state of the cell. This method required currents that proved
quite high, draining lots of power. Worse still, the magnetic fields affected not only the desired
bit but also others nearby, resulting in errors. Researchers are now trying to improve on this
scheme. The most promising alternative is called spin-torque- transfer, or STT. The idea is to
send electrons through a magnetic layer of cobalt, which tends to orient their spins in the same
direction. The resulting spin- polarized current then flows into another layer of cobalt material.
There, by virtue of one of the many mysteries of quantum mechanics, the incoming spin-

polarized electrons transfer their spin orientation to the electrons on this second layer, thus
magnetizing it. So instead of writing a bit by applying a magnetic field, as early MRAM designs
do, STT uses a spin-polarized current of electrons. To be commercially viable, the magnetic
region where the bit is stored has to be quite small, of course. Researchers believe STT should
work down to at least 6 nm and possibly even smaller dimensions. Last year, engineers at Hitachi
and Tohoku University demonstrated a prototype capable of storing 32 megabits this way. But
that’s not all that much. For comparison, a modern DRAM chip can hold ia8 times that amount.
And though in theory such memories should require very small currents to change a bit, in
practice the currents are still too high for most commercial applications. For such reasons, our
group and several others are betting on a different approach entirely. Forget about current-
induced magnetic fields and spin-polarized currents, Instead, find a storage medium with a
permanent magnetism that you can control by applying small voltages. These materials exist
They are called dilute magnetic semiconductors. As their name suggests, they are
semiconductors that are also somewhat magnetic. Their magnetism stems from certain metal
atoms added in a process similar to doping. What’s interesting about these materials is that the
presence of charge carriers electrons and holes (vacancies left when electrons are missing in
places where they’d normally be found)—can alter their magnetic properties.
As part of DARPA. second MRAM research program. initiated in 1999, researchers investigated
several dilute magnetic semiconductors, in particular gallium manganese arsenide and indium
manganese arsenide. Both proved to be good candidates, There was just one problem: A material
is magnetic only up to a given temperature in this case about 200 Kelvin, or – 73 oC. That’s
colder than nighttime in most parts of Mars! Go above that level known as the Curie temperature
and atomic vibrations cause the spins to lose the orderly arrangement that makes the material a
permanent magnet. If this was a memory chip, you’d lose your data.The resulting gallium
manganese nitride turned out to be very promising. When a magnetic field to this substance is
applied, it becomes permanently magnetized. That is to say, when we remove the field, the
magnetization doesn’t go away, so it can be used to store data.
The next major step, was the ability to manipulate the magnetic properties of this
semiconductor electrically. It ws started with ordinary gallium nitride, then applied a thin layer
of gallium nitride that contained a little added silicon, a dopant that donates electrons, thereby
creating an n-type semiconductor. (The “n” stands for “negative.” reflecting the addition of

negative charges, electrons ). Next there was an addition of another gallium nitride layer, this
time using magnesium as a dopant to remove electrons from the lattice of atoms, creating a p-
type layer (p stands for positive). Finally, a very thin veneer of gallium manganese nitride was
deposited on top of all this.
The junction between n- and p-type layers was key. That’s because we can control the
concentration of electrons and holes around a p-n junction by applying a voltage across it. And
that’s exactly what should have been done. When 5 volts is applied across the p-n junction. the
magnetization of that upper layer approached 0. When voltage was removed , the magnetization
shot up.lt is a faint magnetization to be sure, but enough for storing bits.
To know why the voltage on a p-n junction change the magnetization nearby? To understand
that. you have to first think about what goes on at a p.n junction when no voltage is applied
across It .First, recall that the n-type material has an abundance of negative charge
carriers,electrons,which are free to move around. In the p-type material, the charge carriers are
holes, spots in the atomic lattice that are lacking in electrons. When we put one of these materials
against the other, electrons move from the n-type material into the p-type material, filling what
were vacancies, or holes. So we end up depleting both types of charge carriers in the vicinity of
the p-n junction. which is called, naturally enough, the depletion zone. This process is self
limiting ,though. The loss of electrons from the n-type material leaves it with a positive charge,
while the gain of electrons in the p-type material makes it negatively charged. This sets up an
electric field that opposes the migration of any more electrons across the junction.
As with an ordinary diode. If the p-type material is made positive with respect to the n-type
material, the applied voltage can overcome this electric field, sending holes and electrons racing
toward the junction, reducing the thickness of the depletion zone. A voltage of the opposite sense
boosts the internal electric field and makes the depletion zone wider.
What makes this device different is that the p-type material is very thin and is positioned right
next to the magnetic layer of gallium manganese nitride. So by adjusting the voltage across the
p-n junction, we can control the concentration of holes in the p-type layer at the interface with
this magnetic material. That’s important because the pervasive quantum-mechanical weirdness
that arises at these scales allows these holes to interact with the manganese atoms sitting a few
hundred angstroms away. Though there is a debate in our community, we believe the quantum

phenomenon at work here is what is known as carrier-mediated ferromagnetism. It’s as though

the holes told some of the electrons around these manganese atoms to align their spins and start
acting like a refrigerator magnet.
By the same token, a negative voltage is applied across the p-n junction, there is an increase in
the width of the depletion zone enough to diminish the number of holes at the interface with the
magnetic material. That then allows the spins of the electrons in these manganese atoms to revert
to random directions. The device’s magnetization vanishes.
This was the first demonstration that ferromagnetism can be controlled by applying voltages to a
p-n junction without relying on ultracold temperatures. Hope this discovery will help turn
spintronics into a hot topic again, so to speak. The initial prototype built can’t be readily used
as a memory cell. First, we need a major improvement on our design. The problem is that
although we can control the magnetization of our device using voltages, when we remove the
voltages the magnetization returns to a baseline level. For a device to work as a memory, we
need to be able to switch back and forth between two stable states. One idea currently
considered is making the device’s layers even thinner and adding a barrier of non magnetic
material, also very thin, between the p-type and magnetic layers. There is a hope that by applying
a voltage across these two layers, we can change the concentration of holes in the p-type region
and also force some of the holes to cross the newly added barrier and migrate into the magnetic
section of the device. The barrier would then play a key role after the voltage is removed, it
would prevent the holes from migrating back to the p-type region.
Now, if we take the device in this magnetized state and apply a voltage in the reverse direction,
the holes would cross the barrier back into the p-type region. The holes would remain trapped
there, and the magnetization would disappear. This approach would provide the two stable states
we need to use the device as a memory.
If this design is successful, the next step would be miniaturization fact, our initial prototype is
rather big each memory cell is about the size of a fingernail. To build smaller memory cells,
investigation is done in two ways: One is using conventional photolithography, which we
believe could lead to cells about so nm in size. Another idea is to grow the cell structures as
nanowires, which we speculate might shrink them as small as 20 nm.
Such reduced dimensions would lead to another challenge: reading the bits in these tiny cells. As

we proceed to nanoscale dimensions, the strengths of the magnetic fields will become even
smaller, How to detect them remains an open question. We might have to equip each memory
cell with a tiny magnetic sensor, similar to a read head of a hard drive but etched as a series of
layers in the semiconductor. It’s a possibility, but we don’t know how it will perform and
whether the resulting device would be economically viable.
NANO TECHNOLOGY
1>50
Carbon Nano Tube
Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure.
Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1, which is
significantly larger than any other material.CNT developed by Sumio Iijima. These cylindrical
carbon molecules have novel properties. This property is useful in many applications in
nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of science.Nanotubes are members of the
fullerene structural family. It has ability to conduct electricity aswell as copper.it is stronger than
steel and as hard as diamond. The wall of a single-walled carbonnanotube is only one carbon
atom thick and the tube diameter is approximately 100,000 timessmaller than a human hair.
Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotubeis on the order of a few
nanometers (approximately 1/50,000th of the width of a human hair),while they can be up to
several millimeters in length (as of 2008). Nanotubes are categorized as single-walled nanotubes
(SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs).
Technology
Nantero's technology is based on a well-known effect in carbon nanotubes where crossed

nanotubes on a flat surface can either be touching or slightly separated in the vertical
direction(normal to the substrate) due to Van der Waal's interactions. In Nantero's technology,
eachNRAM "cell" consists of a number of nanotubes suspended on insulating "lands" over a
metalelectrode. At rest the nanotubes lie above the electrode "in the air", about 13 nm above it in
thecurrent versions, stretched between the two lands. A small dot of gold is deposited on top of
thenanotubes on one of the lands, providing an electrical connection, or terminal. A second

electrodelies below the surface, about 100 nm away.Normally, with the nanotubes suspended
above the electrode, a small voltage applied between the terminal and upper electrode will result
in no current flowing. This represents a "0" state.However if a larger voltage is applied between
the two electrodes, the nanotubes will be pulled towards the upper electrode until they touch it.
At this point a small voltage applied between theterminal and upper electrode will allow current
to flow (nanotubes are conductors), representing a"1" state. The state can be changed by
reversing the polarity of the charge applied to the two electrodes.
What causes this to act as a memory is that the two positions of the nanotubes are both stable. In
the off position the mechanical strain on the tubes is low, so they will naturally remain in this
position and continue to read "0". When the tubes are pulled into contact with the upper electrode
a new force, the tiny Van der Waals force, comes into play and attracts the tubes enough to
overcome the mechanical strain. Once in this position the tubes will again happily remain there
and continue to read "1". These positions are fairly resistant to outside interference like radiation
that can erase or flip memory in a conventional DRAM.
NRAMs are built by depositing masses of nanotubes on a pre-fabricated chip containing rows of
bar-shaped electrodes with the slightly taller insulating layers between them. Tubes in the
"wrong" location are then removed, and the gold terminals deposited on top. Any number of
methods can be used to select a single cell for writing, for instance the second set of electrodes
can be run in the opposite direction, forming a grid, or they can be selected by adding voltage to
the terminals as well, meaning that only those selected cells have a total voltage high enough to
cause the flip.
Currently the method of removing the unwanted nanotubes makes the system impractical. The
accuracy and size of the epitaxy machinery (Epitaxy refers to the method of depositing a

monocrystalline film on a monocrystalline substrate. The deposited film is denoted as epitaxial
film or epitaxial layer. The term epitaxy comes from the Greek roots epi, meaning "above", and
taxis, meaning "in ordered manner". It can be translated "to arrange upon".) is considerably
"larger" that the cell size otherwise possible. Existing experimental cells have very low densities
compared to existing systems; some new method of construction will have to be introduced in
order to make the system practical.
ROBOTIC STORAGE
Large quantities of individual magnetic tapes, and optical or magneto-optical discs may be stored
in robotic tertiary storage devices. In tape storage field they are known as tape libraries, and in
optical storage field optical jukeboxes, or optical disk libraries per analogy. Smallest forms of
either technology containing just one drive device are referred to as autoloaders or autochangers.
Robotic-access storage devices may have a number of slots, each holding individual media, and
usually one or more picking robots that traverse the slots and load media to built-in drives. The
arrangement of the slots and picking devices affects performance. Important characteristics of
such storage are possible expansion options: adding slots, modules, drives, robots. Tape libraries
may have from 10 to more than 100,000 slots, and provide terabytes or petabytes of near-line
information. Optical jukeboxes are somewhat smaller solutions, up to 1,000 slots.
Robotic storage is used for backups, and for high-capacity archives in imaging, medical, and
video industries. Hierarchical storage management is a most known archiving strategy of
automatically migrating long-unused files from fast hard disk storage to libraries or jukeboxes. If
the files are needed, they are retrieved back to disk.

ADVANTAGES AND APPLICATIONS
 Computer and Laptops (Enabling instant –on performance, with no for boot up)
 Mobile devices (Faster storage of more data for PDA’s and handhelds)
 Embedded memory (More powerful microprocessor, microcontroller, other logic device)
 High speed network
 Security hologram
 Holographic interferometry
 Holographic sensors
 An HVD (holographic Versatile Disc), a holographic storage media, is an advanced
optical disc that’s presently in the development stage. Polaroid scientist J. van Heerden was the
first to come up with the idea for holographic three-dimensional storage media in 1960. An HVD
would be a successor to today’s Blu-ray and HD-DVD technologies. It can transfer data at the
rate of 1 Gigabit per second. The technology permits over 10 kilobits of data to be written and
read in parallel with a single flash. The disc will store upto 3.9 terabyte (TB) of data on a single
optical disk. Holographic data storage, a potential next generation storage technology, offers
both high storage density and fast readout rate. In this article, I discuss the physical origin of
these attractive technology features and the components and engineering required to realize
them. I conclude by describing the current state of holographic and development efforts in the
context of ongoing improvement to established storage technologies.
 The new technology based on spintronics utilizes electron spin and charge in
conventional electronics .. The potential advantage is considerable increase in capacity of
conventional electronic devices . But, it suffers from fundamental limitations. The spin dynamics
is not clearly understood in transport across interface . This uncertainty imposes limits on design
of devices . However, in recent years, understanding of spin dynamics in metallic multilayer
gives partial success in utilizing electron spin as GMR read head and data storage devices . But,
the projection of spintronics will go beyond this and may end regime of charge based electronic .

BIBILOGRAPHY
 Special issue on spintronics IEEE, volume 91 , no. 5, May 2003

 Spintronics info.com
 A Discovery Company, How Stuff Works
 Wikipedia
 Whatis.techtarget.com(MRAM)
 Scribd.com(MRAM)
 Physics.umd.edu
 IEEE Spectrum, Nov, 2010
 Psaltis, D. Mok, F. Holographic memories. Scientific American.
 Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering.
 www.ibm.com - IBM Research Press Resources Holographic Storage
 www.howstuffworks.com
 www.hvd-forum.org
 http://www.tech-faq.com/hvd.shtml .
 http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1759907,00.asp

Absrtact: 2011 DR - AIT, ECE

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Absrtact: 2011 DR - AIT, ECE

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Absrtact: 2011 DR - AIT, ECE

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

NEXT GENERATION MEMORY TECHNOLOGIES

high speed networks ,security holograms and sensors.

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 1

INTRODUCTION TO STORAGE SYSTEMS

Here are a few definitions of storage when refers to computers.

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 2

The following list gives a few classifications of memory devices.

- Primary and Secondary and Tertiary Storage

- Volatile and non-volatile storage

- Read only and Writable storage

- Random Access and Sequential Access storage

Primary and Secondary and Tertiary Storage

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 3

Volatile and non-volatile storage

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 4

Read only and Writable storage

Random Access and Sequential Access storage

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 5

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 6

CHALLENGES IN MEMORY TECHNOLOGY

PC technologies continue to evolve as performance demands grow, and system memory

Role of memory in a system

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 7

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 8

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 9

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 10

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 11

A simplified HVD system consists of the following main components:

Blue or green laser (532-nm wavelength in the test system)

Spatial light modulator (SLM)

Polymer recording medium.

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 12

fig 4.1 RECORDING DATA

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 13

Semiconductor spintronics devices combine advantages of semiconductor with the concept of

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 14

different problems. A first problem is creation of inhomogeneous spin distribution. It is called

However, temperature is still a major bottleneck. Practical application of spintronics needs

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 15

Spin based Devices

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 16

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 17

Manipulation of Electron Spin

Generation of spin polarization

Spin injection and spin-polarized transport

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 18

Ballistic electron injection

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 19

resistance by potentiometric method; while change in resistance can be measured in terms of

Non-equilibrium spin accumulates in non-magnetic region due to process of spin injection. It

Non-equilibrium spin accumulates in non-magnetic region due to process of spin injection. It

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 20

Elliott-Yafet mechanism, (B) The D’yakonov-Perel’ mechanism, (C) The Bir-Aronov-Pikus

SPINTRONIC TECHNOLOGY is already in your computer, at least in a primordial incarnation.

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 21

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 22

2011 DR.AIT, ECE Page 23