Researchers create 10-atom-thick memory chips for devices
Scientists have developed a working memory chip just 10 atoms thick, integrated with conventional chips to potentially boost storage in smartphones and other electronics. The prototype, made from 2D materials, addresses limits in current chip stacking. While promising, experts note it is far from commercial readiness.
After decades of shrinking computer components to fit tens of billions of transistors into fingernail-sized areas, chip wafers remain relatively thick, limiting how many layers can be stacked for greater complexity. Researchers have turned to 2D materials like graphene—a single layer of carbon atoms—to push boundaries further.
Until now, such materials allowed only simple chip designs, with challenges in connecting them to traditional processors. Chunsen Liu at Fudan University in Shanghai and his colleagues overcame this by combining a 10-atom-thick 2D chip with CMOS technology, the standard in modern computers. They inserted a layer of glass between the chips to smooth the rough surface from CMOS manufacturing, a step that would require industrialization for mass production.
The prototype memory module demonstrated over 93 percent accuracy in lab tests, marking a proof of concept but falling short of the reliability needed for consumer devices. "This is a very interesting technology with huge potential, but still a long way to go before it is commercially viable," says Steve Furber at the University of Manchester, UK.
Kai Xu at King’s College London highlights how further shrinking silicon chips causes signal leakage in narrow components. Thinner layers from 2D materials could mitigate this by enabling more even gate control and reducing leakage. "Silicon has already hit obstacles," says Xu. "The 2D material might be able to overcome those effects. If it’s very thin, the control at the gate can be more even, can be more perfect, so there’s less leakage."
The work is detailed in Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09621-8).