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DailyTech – New Memory Can Store Data Safely for 1,000 Years.

Japanese researchers have come up with a new form of ultra-long term memory that they say can last over 1,000 years.  They dub their memory the Digital Rosetta Stone, or DRS memory for short.

The system consists of a stack of four 15-inch wafers, each containing special memory chips.  The wafers are sealed with SiO₂ and SiN to insulate them from oxygen gas and water.  This key feature maintains the humidity at below 2 percent, essentially allowing the long life.  The wafers will be built on a 45nm CMOS technology and offer 2.5 Tbits of total memory capacity

In order to get at the memory and read from and write to it, researchers use a electron-beam direct-writing technology. A mask ROM on the chips provides inductive coupling and allows contactless communication.

The test prototype used larger scale 0.18?m CMOS technology and 5mm x 5mm test chips.  With the reader and the wafers separated from contact by 0.2 mm, a four-channel communication speed of 150Mbps was achieved, using only 56mW of power.