'Jaseong Bandochae' Greatly Reduces Power Consumption

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Domestic researchers have developed a technology that can significantly reduce the power consumption of magnetic memory (MRAM), known as the next-generation semiconductor memory device.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced on the 25th that Dr. Ki-Young Lee's team from the Spin Convergence Research Group at the Next-Generation Semiconductor Research Institute, in collaboration with Director Ji-Won Son's team from the Energy Materials Research Group, developed an ultra-low power, high-speed magnetic memory device technology by injecting hydrogen ions using YSZ (yttria-stabilized zirconia).

Recently, with the advancement of artificial intelligence and 5G mobile technology, semiconductor devices capable of processing massive amounts of data with minimal energy consumption are being developed. Among them, magnetic memory combines the fast data processing speed of DRAM and the non-volatility of flash memory, which retains data even when power is off, making it a promising future semiconductor device.

Unlike conventional current-based memory, magnetic memory utilizes magnetism caused by the spin of electrons. Electrons have a property of spinning in a specific direction, called spin, and applying a magnetic field to a material can align the direction of spins. Magnetic memory stores information based on the aligned direction of spins, but there has been a limitation in that a large amount of power is required to change this direction. Recently, domestic large companies have succeeded in commercialization and produced prototypes, but they suffer from excessive power consumption.

The research team developed a technology that maximizes the movement of hydrogen ions by applying YSZ, which is used as an electrolyte in the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) field due to its high ionic conductivity, to semiconductor devices. By utilizing this technology, the speed of switching the spin alignment direction can be increased by 100 times compared to existing methods.

Dr. Ki-Young Lee of KIST said, "Applying materials used in the fuel cell field to magnetic memory is a convergence research achievement that makes excellent use of KIST's strength as a comprehensive research institute," and added, "Magnetic memory technology not only can be commercialized by replacing existing memory in the current market structure but also has great potential for commercialization as the most outstanding memory among next-generation non-volatile memory devices."

This research result was published in Nano Letters, an international journal in the field of nanotechnology.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.