US Patent 8071972 - Silicon memresistor nanowire crossbar array

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8071972.html

In the past decade there have been several proposals for using chalcogenide or metal oxide materials in crossbar arrays to construct a form a high density non-volatile memory called RRAM. This patent from the University of Michigan teaches a new variation of RRAM based on amorphous silicon pillars having nanoscale dimensions.Claim 1 reads:

1. A crossbar memory array, comprising:

a first array of nanowires of a first material;

a second array of nanowires of a different second material oriented at an angle with the first array; and

a plurality of non-crystalline silicon nanostructures, each intersection of the first array and the second array including one of the non-crystalline silicon nanostructures disposed between a nanowire of the first material and a nanowire of the second material to form a resistive memory cell;

wherein at least one of the plurality of non-crystalline silicon nanostructures is a nanoscale pillar providing a contact point between the first and second arrays at exactly one intersection.