| 摘要 |
<p>This information flows from the application of a newly found property of tetrahedral amorphous carbon. The invention relates to a digital information storage device useful in a range of applications. In a further aspect, the invention relates to a writable medium. The invention uses a layer of tetrahedral amorphous carbon and electrical means which are movable relative to each other. The electrical means are operable to reversibly change both the resistance and small signal capacitance of the tetrahedral amorphous carbon device in the region adjacent the electrical means. The principal advantage of using ta-C as a basis for digital information storage is its inherent inexpense, since it can be deposited very easily and cheaply over large areas. The material also has the potential for achieving higher storage densities than current non-volatile memories, and possibly higher than even DRAM. In terms of a design ta-C memories have the potential to be fabricated without the need for an access transistor. In this configuration memory arrays could be created simply by depositing a ta-C film in between perpendicular sets of conductive address lines, with a memory cell, or bit, at the intersection between crossing lines. Ta-C could also be used in place of the storage capacitor dielectric in a DRAM cell configuration, allowing long term memory storage by the ta-C memory effect, and providing against the possibility of soft errors through the use of an isolating access transistor. Alternatively, it is possible to write to the medium electrostatically with a simple point contact, or many point contacts in parallel.</p> |
