Chinese Researchers Develop FlexRAM Liquid Metal RAM Using Biomimicry

Researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing have developed FlexRAM, the first fully flexible resistive RAM memory built using liquid metal. The innovative approach suspends droplets of gallium-based liquid metal in a soft biopolymer material. Applying voltage pulses oxidizes or reduces the metal, mimicking neuron polarization. This allows the reversible switching between high and low resistance states corresponding to bit 1s and 0s for data storage. Even when powered off, data persists in the inert liquid for 43,200 seconds (or 12 hours). The current FlexRAM prototype consists of 8 independent 1-bit memory units, storing a total of 1 byte. It has demonstrated over 3,500 write cycles, though further endurance improvements are needed for practical use. Commercial RAM is rated for millions of read/write cycles. The millimeter-scale metal droplets could eventually reach nanometer sizes, dramatically increasing memory density.