The world's latest breakthrough! Liquid metal memory FlexRAM announced: developed by Tsinghua University, redox analog binary

On January 23, researchers from Tsinghua University developed a liquid metal memory named FlexRAM. The research has been published in the journal Advanced Materials.

▲ Image source: Tsinghua University, cited from IEEE.org, the same below

FlexRAM is the first fully flexible resistive RAM device, consisting of droplets of liquid gallium (charge for 1/0 binary storage values) suspended and infused with Ecoflex, a stretchable biopolymer.

The researchers used gallium-based liquid metal to implement the data writing and reading process of FlexRAM. In an example of biomimetics, gallium-based liquid metal (GLM) droplets undergo oxidation and reduction mechanisms in a solution environment that mimics the hyperpolarization and depolarization of neurons.

Professor Jing Liu, one of the FlexRAM researchers at Tsinghua University, said: "This breakthrough fundamentally changes the traditional concept of flexible storage and provides a theoretical basis and technical path for future soft intelligent robots, brain-computer interface systems, and wearable/implantable electronic devices."

▲ FlexRAM in oxidation and reduction state

The researchers defined the writing of information "1" and "0" by positive and negative bias, respectively. When a low voltage is applied, the liquid metal is oxidized, corresponding to the high-resistance state "1". By reversing the voltage polarity, it returns the metal to its initial low-resistance state "0". This reversible switching process allows data to be stored and erased.

To demonstrate the read and write capabilities of FlexRAM, the researchers integrated it into a software and hardware setup. Through computer commands, they encoded a string of letters and numbers in the form of 0s and 1s onto an array of eight FlexRAM memory cells, equivalent to one byte of data information. Pulse width modulation was used to convert the computer's digital signals into analog signals to precisely control the oxidation and reduction of the liquid metal.

Professor Jing Liu said that the current FlexRAM prototype is a volatile memory (data will be lost after power failure). But he believes that the memory principle allows the device to be developed into different forms of storage.

In experiments, FlexRAM can retain data for up to 43,200 seconds (12 hours) in a low-oxygen or oxygen-free environment even when the power is turned off. It is also reusable, maintaining stable performance over more than 3,500 operation cycles.

IEEE Spectrum also stated that as researchers and engineers continue to address challenges and improve technology, FlexRAM's potential applications in soft robots, brain-computer interface systems, and wearable/implantable electronics may be very important.

IT Home found that the official website of Tsinghua University School of Medicine shows that Professor Liu Jing has long been engaged in the research of interdisciplinary scientific issues in the fields of liquid metal, biomedical engineering and engineering thermal physics, and has made a series of pioneering contributions. He discovered many new scientific phenomena, basic effects and revolutionary application paths of liquid metal, opened up breakthrough applications of liquid metal in biomedicine, flexible robots, printed electronics and 3D printing, and chip cooling, and proposed and promoted the creation and development of China's Liquid Metal Valley and a new liquid metal industry.

Professor Jing Liu received a bachelor's degree in science and engineering from Tsinghua University in 1992 and a doctorate in engineering from Tsinghua University in 1996. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University and a senior visiting scholar at MIT. She was selected into the Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University in 1998 and 2005 respectively. She is a recipient of the National Outstanding Young Scientist Fund in 2003. She has won the William Berg Award, one of the highest awards in the international heat transfer field, the first National Innovation Award, and was shortlisted and selected for the "Top Ten Science and Technology News in China Selected by Academicians of the Two Academies" once each. She was selected as one of the CCTV Top Ten Science and Technology Innovation Figures in 2015 and was shortlisted as a 2015 R&D 100 Awards Finalists.