IIT Roorkee researchers make major breakthrough

Dehradun: Researchers at IIT Roorkee on Wednesday claimed to have made a breakthrough in memory device technology which, they said, usher in a new technological revolution.
A team of researchers from the Department of Physics and Centre for Nanotechnology has developed a high-density, energy-efficient and four-logic state memory device named Magnetoelectric Random Access Memory (MeRAM).

The device could provide a massive boost to overall computing processes and memory-intensive tasks like video and multimedia signal processing, pattern recognition, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

"MeRAM has immense potential to be used in future memory chips for almost all electronic applications, including smart phones, tablets, computers, microprocessors, and for large data storage," Davinder Kaur Walia, a professor at the Department of Physics and Centre for Nanotechnology, said.

The device was constructed in the Functional Nanomaterials Research Laboratory using magnetron sputtering technique, she said.

MeRAM's key advantage over existing technologies is that it combines extraordinary low energy with very high density, high-speed reading and writing times, and non-volatility--the ability to retain data when no power is applied, Ms Walia said.
"The world is rapidly moving towards faster, smaller and quantum technologies which has created an ever-increasing demand for small and more efficient devices and technology," she said.