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Recent research from a University of Adelaide academic has outlined the gap between scientific reality and whether a promising technology reaches commercial production.

Adjunct Lecturer Dr Dominic Lane, School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, has been exploring the world of ULTRARAM, a widely promoted III–V semiconductor memory concept claimed to combine the speed of DRAM with the retention of flash.

He has published his findings in the .

"While the underlying physics of ULTRARAM is elegant, its path to commercial viability remains obstructed by fundamental materials and engineering barriers," says Dr Lane.

"These barriers include interface defects, charge-trapping instabilities, and poor scalability which will continue to prevent the technology from reaching large-scale manufacturability.

ULTRARAM technology utilises quantum mechanical effects, such as resonant tunnelling, to enable a barrier to switch from opaque to transparent with minimal energy input.

The combination of speed, energy efficiency, endurance, and non-volatility makes it an attractive option for a wide range of digital electronics, like personal computers and large data centres.

"ULTRARAM has been presented as a revolutionary memory breakthrough," says Dr Lane.

"During my time at Lancaster University where ULTRARAM was initially developed, I co-invented and fabricated the first ULTRARAM devices on silicon substrates but the disconnect between the science and viability in scaling it up has proven to be difficult.

"Without a clear path to high-yield growth of defect-free III–V stacks on standard 300 mm silicon wafers, ULTRARAM’s route to system-level integration remains uncertain.

"There needs to be transparent, data-driven discussion before bold commercial claims are made, and more focus should be placed on III–V interface engineering and materials integration as prerequisites for any viable next-generation memory technology."