Scientists have managed to create a transistor with built-in FeRAM memory

It just so happened that data processing and storage are tasks for completely different devices. And the integration of computational cells into memory cells is an opportunity not only to further increase the density arrangement of elements on the crystal, but also create a device that in its essence resembles a human brain.

Such a development has every chance to give a huge impetus to the development of artificial intelligence.

According to American researchers from the science center Purdue Discovery Park Birck Nanotechnology Center Purdue University, in order to maximally compact the structure of the gate cell (1T1C), it is necessary to use a ferroelectric (ferroelectric) memory cell combined with a transistor.

Also, for density, it is quite possible to build a magnetoresistive tunnel junction directly into the contact group immediately below the transistor.

Scientists published the results of their experiments in the journal Nature Electronics, where they described in detail all their scientific research, as a result of which they managed to create a transistor with a built-in tunnel junction from a ferroelectric.

In the course of their work, they managed to solve one very important problem. After all, ferroelectrics are considered to be dielectrics with an extremely wide band gap, which blocks the passage of electrons. And in semiconductors, for example, in silicon, electrons pass unhindered.

In addition, ferroelectrics are endowed with one more property, which in no way allows creating memory cells on a single silicon crystal together with transistors.

Namely: silicon is incompatible with ferroelectrics, since figuratively speaking, it is "etched" by them.

In order to neutralize these negative aspects, scientists set out to find a semiconductor with the properties of a ferroelectric and they succeeded.

This material turned out to be selenide-alpha indium. After all, it has a fairly small bandgap and is capable of passing an electron flow. And since this is a semiconductor material, there are simply no obstacles to its combination with silicon.

Numerous studies, laboratory tests and complex simulations have shown that with due optimization, the created transistor with built-in memory can significantly outperform the existing field-effect transistors.

At the same time, the thickness of the tunnel junction is now only 10 nm, but according to the representatives of the scientific group, this parameter can be reduced to the thickness of only one atom.

This super-dense layout brings the whole of humanity one step closer to implementing an ambitious project like Artificial Intelligence.

I would like to emphasize that most of the funding comes from subsidies from the Pentagon, which leads to some thoughts.

I liked the material, then thumbs up and like from you! Also write in the comments, maybe American scientists are developing a kind of analogue of Skynet?