HOW WOULD DEVICES CHANGE?
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Devices
with new nanoscale crystals made of
ferroelectric materials, or
materials that can spontaneously gain an electric charge, will
be smaller than other devices without the crystals since they
would not need back-up batteries. This is because the crystals
do not revert spontaneously and would therefore retain
information even through a power failure. A memory device that has already been invented, smart cards, have the potential to hold even more information than before. Smart cards, like the Octopus card in Hong Kong, have the same design as credit cards, but now can contain ferroelectric crystals for information. This allows the card to hold vast amounts of memory. Also, unlike credit cards, there are no magnetic strips on smart cards and they do not wear out. Right now, the smart cards only hold about 250 Kb of memory, but researchers are developing a more flexible smart card with larger and longer-lasting memory. One example is cell phones. One idea is using carbon nanotubes in place of radio-frequency amplifiers to increase battery efficiency. Another is to use a new battery created using nanoparticles so that battery life is only drained during use, not when the device is off (which occurs in the current batteries).
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