Researcher honoured for work on next-gen computer storage
BERKELEY, California: Suhas Kumar, a postdoctoral researcher at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), has won the 2017 Melvin P. Klein Scientific Development Award for his work on developing next-generation computer storage devices.
He is working on a new type of electronic device, called a memristor, that could make future computer memories faster, more durable and more energy efficient than today’s flash memory.
Memristors typically consist of a piece of transition metal oxide sandwiched between two electrodes. Applying a voltage pulse to the electrodes switches the device from low to high electrical conductivity or vice versa.
The two states represent the two values of a “bit,” the basic unit of information in digital computing. Since no external power inputs are needed to keep the device in a switched state, it is suitable for use as “non-volatile” computer memory and could become an alternative for flash memory.
Kumar has been collaborating with researchers at HPE, Stanford University, SSRL and the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The researchers determined, for instance, that a voltage pulse pushes oxygen atoms in memristor materials out of conductive paths, making the materials even more conductive. Reversing the voltage pulse sucks the oxygen back in, which increases the materials’ resistance. In addition, Kumar’s team looked into how memristors fail, which resulted in ideas for making better ones. — Newswise