Phase Change Optical Chip

[Arthur Hanson]

http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphoton.2015.182.html

Like Crossbar and 3DxPoint memory, this uses phase change materials. Phase change materials are going to be the next frontier for everything from computing, memory, energy storage (they make phase change vests and sheetrock for temperature control and energy storage). This could be a whole new frontier for the semi sector, in fact phase change although as old as ice(liquid to solid) with new technology looks to open up whole new frontiers. Is anyone working with novel applications in this area that they can talk about? Other areas this technology could get into would be expansion/contraction, permeability, flexibility, index refraction changes, thermal conduction and other areas only limited by the imagination.

Additions

Phase change materials could also open a whole new field for sensors of extremely small size allowing a single chip to have hudreds, if not thousands of sensors.

Would it be possible to use phase change to desalinate water?

 

[mhagmann]

Arthur--I appreciate your citing this significant approach to multi-level multi-bit devices that may provide a pathway towards eliminating the von Neumann bottleneck. This appears to be the first non-volatile, all-photonic memory, which is made possible by using optical near-field effects with phase-change materials, achieving bit storage of up to 8 levels in a single device. These on-chip memory cells have single-shot readout with switching energies as low as 13.4 pJ at speeds approaching 1 GHz. Wavelength-multiplexing is used to address the individual memory elements.