The US Office of Naval Research has been funding studies into molecular memory (WO 01/52266). Previous attempts to do this, which used photochemical dyes to record data, failed because the read/write heads moved too slowly. They were also limited because the memory could only be stored on a flat film. The ONR gets round this by sandwiching a layer of polymer between fluoropolymer film that has a wire grid criss-crossing it. Applying voltages to selected pairs of wires produces pulses at the crossing points. This oxidises the polymer, altering the electrical resistance at that point to represent a 0 or a 1. The process is reversible, and the layers can be stacked to form a block that can be used like a memory chip.
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