{"690366":{"#nid":"690366","#data":{"type":"news","title":" Georgia Tech Researchers Discover New Form of NAND Flash Data Storage for Deep Space Missions","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs space missions travel farther from Earth, spacecraft must increasingly be able to process and store their own data. Soon, artificial intelligence (AI) could be the primary tool for handling this growing volume of information. NAND flash memory is the current state-of-the-art technology used to store these massive amounts of data, offering storage capacities in the terabit range. It\u2019s the same technology used in laptops, smartphones, and data centers. Ensuring NAND\u2019s reliability in space is critical as these systems increasingly rely on high-density, low-power storage.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut the radiation in harsh space environments can significantly degrade data stored in NAND flash memory. To counteract this,\u0026nbsp;Georgia Tech researchers have developed a new form of NAND flash memory that can both handle AI and withstand extreme radiation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis technology uses\u0026nbsp;ferroelectricity, which is when\u0026nbsp;certain materials can hold a\u0026nbsp;permanent, spontaneous electric charge, called polarization. In a recent \u003Cem\u003ENano Letters\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acs.nanolett.5c05947\u0022\u003Epaper\u003C\/a\u003E, the researchers show that NAND flash memory made with ferroelectric materials can withstand radiation levels up to 30 times higher than more conventional NAND flash memory.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you send traditional flash memory to space, the radiation interacting with flash memory\u2019s trapped electric charge can easily corrupt the data,\u201d said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/people\/asif-khan\u0022\u003EAsif Khan\u003C\/a\u003E, an associate professor in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E (ECE). \u201cIn contrast, ferroelectric NAND flash storage does not store data as trapped electrical charge, but rather stores it as polarization in the material. And polarization is very resilient to radiation effects.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERadiation Revelation\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe insight that NAND flash-compatible ferroelectric memory could withstand high amounts of radiation surprised the researchers. Ferroelectricity in hafnium oxide \u2014 the silicon-compatible material that makes this memory possible \u2014 was discovered just 15 years ago, and Khan\u2019s lab has been determining its capabilities for the past decade. The team knew ferroelectricity was radiation-tolerant, but not exactly how tolerant when implemented in NAND flash architectures.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELance Fernandes, an ECE Ph.D. student and the paper\u2019s first author, built the ferroelectric NAND memory chips in Georgia Tech\u2019s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/matter-systems.gatech.edu\/cleanroom\/micronano-fabrication-facility\u0022\u003Ecleanroom\u003C\/a\u003E, then sent the chips for radiation testing to collaborators at Pennsylvania State University.\u0026nbsp;Those tests revealed just how extreme the technology\u2019s tolerance could be.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Penn State researchers\u2019 testing showed that ferroelectric flash technology can sustain radiation as high as 1 million rads (radiation absorbed doses) \u2014 the equivalent of 100 million X-rays \u2014 making it 30 times more durable than traditional memory. This is well within the radiation-tolerance threshold for most spacecraft: Low-Earth orbit satellites require a tolerance of 5 \u2013 30 kilorads, geostationary orbits need 100 \u2013 300 kilorads, and deep space missions top out at 1 million rads.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor data storage in space, it\u2019s not enough for memory to work. It has to remain reliable under extreme radiation,\u201d said Fernandes.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAnd what makes our storage especially exciting,\u0022 added Khan, \u201cis that ferroelectric NAND flash isn\u0027t just radiation-tolerant; it also stays reliable even in extremely harsh radiation environments. That\u0027s exactly what we need for space.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrom orbiting satellites to future missions surveying Jupiter\u2019s moons, successful space exploration requires electronics that can process abundant AI data and will not fail when communication is delayed. Ferroelectric memory offers a way to keep critical data intact, no matter how harsh the environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe work was supported in part by SUPREME, one of seven centers in JUMP 2.0, a Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) program sponsored by DARPA. The work was performed as part of the Interaction of Ionizing Radiation With Matter University Research Alliance, sponsored by the Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, under grant HDTRA1-20-2-0002.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEnabling Radiation Hardness in Solid-State NAND Storage Utilizing a Laminated Ferroelectric Stack Lance Fernandes, Stuart Wodzro, Prasanna Venkatesan, Priyankka Ravikumar, Ming-Yen Lee, Minji Shon, Dyutimoy Chakraborty, Taeyoung Song, Sanghyun Kang, Salma Soliman, Mengkun Tian, Jason Yeager, Jackson Adler, Jiayi Chen, Zekai Wang, Douglas Wolfe, Shimeng Yu, Andrea Padovani, Suman Datta, Biswajit Ray, and Asif Khan. \u003Cem\u003ENano Letters\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;2026\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003E26\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;(10), 3390-3397\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDOI: 10.1021\/acs.nanolett.5c05947\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe new data storage technology is up to 30 times more radiation-resilient than current data storage.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The new data storage technology is up to 30 times more radiation-resilient than current data storage."}],"uid":"34541","created_gmt":"2026-05-18 19:07:14","changed_gmt":"2026-05-18 19:12:32","author":"Tess Malone","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-05-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-05-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680306":{"id":"680306","type":"image","title":"Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building06.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EAsif Khan and Lance Fernandes built the ferroelectric NAND memory chips in Georgia Tech\u2019s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/matter-systems.gatech.edu\/cleanroom\/micronano-fabrication-facility\u0022\u003Ecleanroom\u003C\/a\u003E, then sent the chips for radiation testing to collaborators at Pennsylvania State University.\u0026nbsp;Those tests revealed just how extreme the technology\u2019s tolerance could be.\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1779131432","gmt_created":"2026-05-18 19:10:32","changed":"1779131432","gmt_changed":"2026-05-18 19:10:32","alt":"Researchers holding chip","file":{"fid":"264553","name":"Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building06.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/18\/Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building06.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/18\/Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building06.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1960658,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/05\/18\/Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building06.jpg?itok=hxg_SBcP"}},"680307":{"id":"680307","type":"image","title":"Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building02.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003ELance Fernandes and Asif Khan in the cleanroom.\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1779131518","gmt_created":"2026-05-18 19:11:58","changed":"1779131518","gmt_changed":"2026-05-18 19:11:58","alt":"Researchers in clean room","file":{"fid":"264554","name":"Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building02.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/18\/Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building02.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/18\/Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building02.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3265861,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/05\/18\/Research-photos-in-Nanotech-Building02.jpg?itok=MFsI_ugM"}}},"media_ids":["680306","680307"],"groups":[{"id":"660369","name":"Matter and Systems"},{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193652","name":"Matter and Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETess Malone, Senior Research Writer\/Editor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003Etess.malone@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}