Non-volatile graphene-drum memory chip
AssigneeClean Energy Labs, LLC
InventorsDavid A. Badger, Joseph F. Pinkerton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to non-volatile memory chips having graphene drums. In some embodiments, the non-volatile memory chips have one or more layers that each includes a plurality of graphene-drum memory chip cells.
Claims37
A memory chip comprising an array of electrically conductive drums that have a range of mechanical resonant frequencies that can be individually addressed with an electrical signal between said electrically conductive drums and a nearby electrically conductive member.
A method of reading a memory state of an electrically conductive drum in an electrically conductive memory chip cell, wherein the electrically conductive drum is operable for moving between a first position and a second position, the method comprising:
- (a) applying a voltage between the electrically conductive drum and a nearby electrically conductive member that can cause a tunneling current due to the thermal amplitude of the graphene drum;
- (b) sensing the frequency of the tunneling current;
- and
- (c) determining whether the electrically conductive drum is in the first position or the second position, wherein the first position and second position are selected from the group consisting of (a) the “on” position and the “off” position, respectively, and (b) the “off” position and the “on” position, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.