A team of scientists has developed a technique to create stackable memory chips, which they claim could be used for inexpensive storage cells.
The technology is based on ionic memory and utilises silicon to add improved functionality to the memory cell, while the chip is primarily made from copper-doped silicon dioxide.
Michael Kozicki, electrical engineering professor at Arizona State University and director of the Center for Applied Nanoionics, led the study and claimed that the chip has the potential to hold hard drive storage capacity on it.
He explained that this could allow devices to be smaller and able to last longer between battery charges, as well as being more "rugged".
Mr Kozicki said: "This opens the door to inexpensive, high-density data storage by 'stacking' memory layers on top of one another inside a single chip."
Recent research at North Carolina State University has led to a new material being created, which may have the potential to store the equivalent of 250 million pages of text on a chip the size of a fingernail.