(An) electro-thermally actuated non-volatile mechanical memory with low actuation voltage for application in high temperature data storage

Abstract

As highly advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and Internet of Things (IoT), etc., emerge in the advent of the 21st century, people have benefited from the convenience that these technologies bring to their lives. However, as dependence on technologies grow, reliability of these technologies have become an important issue. Autonomous driving, for instance, revolutionizes the driving experience, but an error in the autonomous driving system can potentially result in human casualties. Modern technologies are, to most part, based on trillions of data that are collected from the activities of people or the surrounding environments that the technologies are being used. Computer collects and stores data, analyzes, and makes an appropriate judgement, and passes down certain orders to change or control the system. Hence, an error in data can have a cascading effect, causing malfunction in electronic devices, and ultimately, a catastropic failure. For this reason, safe and reliable storage of data is very important as computer systems operate based on the data. Traditionally, semiconductor based memories such as DRAM and Flash memories, and resistive-type memories like PC-RAM and M-RAM have been developed and widely used for the storage of data. Nevertheless, these memories are well known to be susceptible to various environmental factors due to their intrinsic limitations. Among various factors affecting the data storage such as radiation, mechanical vibration, and high temperature, high temperature is the most relevant issue causing deterioration in memory retention characteristics. In this research, a mechanical type memory device based on nano/micro electro-mechanical systems (N/MEMS) that are highly resilient to high temperature is proposed as a possible solution to replace traditional memory devices.