Tungsten Chip Save Data for Millions of Years

According to some foreign reports, form carving on the rock to storing data in the magnetic medium, humans have been using different means to preserve information. Although the amount of data stored by humans has grown tremendously over the past few decades, it has been difficult to keep data for a long period of time.

The key of saving information is to make sure that information won’t be lost. If we want to keep information for longer than human life expectancy, we should adopt the medium which is different from the medium we used in daily life. The researcher from Institute of Nanotechnologies in the University of Twente suggests that it is possible to store the data for an extremely long time.

At present, hard disk drives that are widely used today can store large amounts of data, but can only be used at room temperature for about 10 years. This is because the magnetic potential barrier of the hard disk is low, so after a period of time, the information stored on it is gradually lost. The life of media such as CD, DVD discs, paper, tape, ceramics, clay plates and stones is also limited. If we want to keep the information for a longer period of time, we need to find new media.

Freese has developed a new optical information carrier. Each byte is written by using etching technology, and the information on the carrier can be stored for an extremely long time. This chip is made by tungsten and encapsulated by silicon nitride. The reason why we choose tungsten is that this element can stand extreme temperature.

The information form etched onto the surface of tungsten is called a QR code, which is protected by the nitrides. In a large QR code, each pixel contains a smaller QR code, which is used to store different information.

In order to ensure the stability of data, the energy potential barrier is set up between the information and the outside world. The researchers conducted an aging test to see if the energy barrier could ensure that the data was not lost.

“According to Arrhenius model, if the storage medium can be placed in an oven of 473 Kelvin (200 degrees Celsius) for 1 hour, it can continue to work for at least a million years.” Freese said. 

After the test, researchers found that tungsten chip did not show obvious aging and could easily read information. Things get complicated as temperatures continue to rise. At 713 Kelvin (440 degrees Celsius), decoding the QR code became very difficult, although tungsten was not affected.

“The coming research will focus on whether this data carrier can stand higher temperatures, such as a fire at home. However, if we can find a very stable place, such as a nuclear storage facility, the chip and the data may be stored for millions of years.”

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