NAND in space; integrated photonic functions on silicon; light-emitting organic transistor with memory.
Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State University built ferroelectric NAND flash memory chips that can withstand up to 30 times higher radiation levels compared to conventional NAND.
“If you send traditional flash memory to space, the radiation interacting with flash memory’s trapped electric charge can easily corrupt the data,” said Asif Khan, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in a press release. “In contrast, ferroelectric NAND flash storage does not store data as trapped electrical charge, but rather stores it as polarization in the material. And polarization is very resilient to radiation effects.”
In tests, the ferroelectric NAND was able to sustain radiation as high as 1 million rads, placing it within the radiation-tolerance threshold for most spacecraft, including potentially deep space missions. Khan added that it should keep working out there, too. “What makes our storage especially exciting is that ferroelectric NAND flash isn’t just radiation-tolerant; it also stays reliable even in extremely harsh radiation environments. That’s exactly what we need for space.” [1]
Researchers from Polytechnique Montréal integrated triphenylamine–dicyanoquinoxaline (TPA‑QCN) directly onto silicon, enabling photonic functions such as amplification and modulation directly on-chip.
TPA‑QCN shows a second-order optical nonlinear response, which allows light beams to interact as they travel through the material. When deposited as a thin film through vacuum evaporation, it arranges itself into a layer with a preferred orientation.
“This spontaneous alignment may sound like a small detail, but physically it makes all the difference,” said Stéphane Kéna‑Cohen, an engineering physics professor at Polytechnique Montréal, in a press release. “It gives the material the ability to manipulate light in ways that simply aren’t possible with today’s silicon photonic chips.”
As a demonstration, the researchers designed an integrated device capable of converting infrared light used for telecommunications into visible red light directly on the chip.
“We’re already seeing improved performance using better performing variants of these self‑aligning molecules,” Kéna‑Cohen added. “If we can combine these functions on a single chip, we simplify everything. Fewer conversion steps, less heat, and systems that are better suited for what’s coming.” [2]
Researchers from Seoul National University, Stanford University, and Chinese Academy of Sciences developed an ultra-low-voltage electrochemical organic light-emitting transistor that can simultaneously perform signal processing, memory, and light emission within a single device.
The team induced electric-double-layer formation at the electrode interface by introducing an ion transport enhancer into the light-emitting polymer semiconductor channel, which enabled efficient electron injection without relying on the high voltages or unstable n-type doping used in conventional approaches.
This enabled light emission at <3.5 V while maintaining a wide and stable emission zone. Additionally, the device exhibited neuromorphic signal-processing and memory characteristics, with responses accumulating under repeated stimuli and retained over time. The researchers demonstrated the device in a flexible wearable display system powered by only two 1.5 V batteries.
“This work is particularly meaningful in that it demonstrates that all functions can be integrated within a single semiconductor device, without the need to separately fabricate and connect processing, memory, and display units,” said Tae-Woo Lee, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University, in a statement. “Going forward, we plan to further develop this technology into an on-skin semiconductor platform applicable to intelligent artificial skin and wearable healthcare.” [3]
[1] L. Fernandes, S. Wodzro, P. Venkatesan, et al. Enabling Radiation Hardness in Solid-State NAND Storage Utilizing a Laminated Ferroelectric Stack. Nano Letters 2026 26 (10), 3390-3397 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c05947
[2] P-L. Thériault, A. Petit, A. Anand V.S., S. Kéna-Cohen. Poling-free integrated second-order nonlinear optics with evaporated organic thin films. Sci. Adv. 12, eaeg3170 (2026) https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeg3170
[3] KN. Kim, H. Zhou, DY. Kim, et al. Ultralow-voltage electrochemical organic light-emitting transistors with pinned and wide lateral recombination. Nat. Mater. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02613-7
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