A team of Penn Engineering researchers led by Deep Jariwala, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, and Troy Olsson, PhD, Associate Professor in Electrical and Systems Engineering, PhD, have created a memory device that remains stable at temperatures up to 600°C (over 1,000° F).
This device, whose heat tolerance far surpasses existing commercial storage technologies, could help to facilitate computing under extreme conditions like deep-earth drilling and space missions. Constructed using ferroelectric aluminum scandium nitride, the technology offers reliable data retention, which is ideal for AI applications in challenging environments.
“Conventional devices using small silicon transistors have a tough time working in high-temperature environments, a limitation that restricts silicon processors…,” said Jariwala, who was recently awarded with the 2024 Adolph Lomb Medal by Optica for his seminal contributions to nano-optics of low-dimensional semiconductors and development of excitonic meta-materials. Read more about this new, cutting-edge technology here.