PoX: Super-Fast Graphene-Based Flash Memory
Recently a team at Fudan University claimed to have developed a picosecond-level Flash memory device (called ‘PoX’) that has an access time of a mere 400 picoseconds. This is significantly …read more


Recently a team at Fudan University claimed to have developed a picosecond-level Flash memory device (called ‘PoX’) that has an access time of a mere 400 picoseconds. This is significantly faster than the millisecond level access times of NAND Flash memory, and more in the ballpark of DRAM, while still being non-volatile. Details on the device technology were published in Nature.
In the paper by [Yutong Xing] et al. they describe the memory device as using a two-dimensional Dirac graphene-channel Flash memory structure, with hot carrier injection for both electron and hole injection, meaning that it is capable of both writing and erasing. Dirac graphene refers to the unusual electron transport properties of typical monolayer graphene sheets.
Demonstrated was a write speed of 400 picoseconds, non-volatile storage and a 5.5 × 106 cycle endurance with a programming voltage of 5 V. It are the unique properties of a Dirac material like graphene that allow these writes to occur significantly faster than in a typical silicon transistor device.
What is still unknown is how well this technology scales, its power usage, durability and manufacturability.