POSTECH researchers develop water-repellent memory chip

POSTECH researchers develop water-repellent memory chip. April. 23, 2012 07:30. uneasy75@donga.com.

A research team at Pohang University of Science and Technology, or POSTECH, on Sunday said it created a water-repellent memory chip.

"Borrowing from one of nature`s most water-repellent surfaces, the leaf of the lotus plant, we succeeded in developing a waterproof memory chip," said the research team led by professor Yong Ki-joong.

A lotus leaf is covered with tiny microscopic bumps that act as a water-repellent coating material, so water rolls off.

The research team set up a board, grew a nano line with tungsten oxide, and then coated it with a monofilm to create a memory chip. It created the same bumps and coating materials as in a lotus leaf to make the water-repellent memory chip. Nano line is one-billionth of a meter and is thin as a hair.

Yong said, "The water-repellent chip moved stably in water, and is expected to be used in developing waterproof smartphones and computers."

The breakthrough was carried in the April 10 online edition of Advanced Materials, a major weekly journal on materials sciences.