USC Unveils Memory Chip With Lava-Proof Heat Resistance

New memristor device can operate reliably at 700 degrees Celsius, far beyond previous limits

Apr. 1, 2026 at 6:20am

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Researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a new type of electronic memory device that can operate reliably at temperatures up to 700 degrees Celsius, hotter than molten lava. The device, a memristor made with a unique combination of materials including tungsten, hafnium oxide, and graphene, showed no signs of failure even at these extreme temperatures, opening up new possibilities for applications in space exploration, deep-earth drilling, and high-efficiency AI computing.

Why it matters

Electronics used in space, industrial, and AI applications often face extreme heat that causes conventional silicon-based chips to fail. This new memristor device overcomes those thermal limitations, potentially enabling new breakthroughs in planetary exploration, geothermal energy, and energy-efficient machine learning.

The details

The memristor device was built using a sandwich structure with tungsten as the top electrode, hafnium oxide ceramic in the middle, and graphene as the bottom electrode. This unique combination of materials allows the device to withstand temperatures up to 700 degrees Celsius without degradation, far exceeding the 200-degree limit of typical electronics. The team discovered that the surface chemistry between graphene and tungsten prevents the metal atoms from migrating through the ceramic layer and shorting out the device, the main failure mode in conventional high-heat electronics.

  • The study was published on March 26, 2026 in the journal Science.
  • The research was conducted as part of the CONCRETE Center, a multi-university research program sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The players

Joshua Yang

Arthur B. Freeman Chair Professor at the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC School of Advanced Computing, and the lead researcher on the project.

Jian Zhao

The first author of the paper and the researcher who built the memristor device.

CONCRETE Center

A multi-university Center of Excellence led by Joshua Yang at USC and sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Air Force Research Laboratory, where the key research was conducted.

Sabyasachi Ganguli

A researcher at the AFRL Materials Lab in Dayton, Ohio, who collaborated on the materials characterization for the project.

Qiangfei Xia, Miao Hu, and Ning Ge

Co-authors of the paper who have co-founded a startup called TetraMem to commercialize room-temperature memristor chips for AI computing.

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What they’re saying

“You may call it a revolution. It is the best high-temperature memory ever demonstrated.”

— Joshua Yang, Arthur B. Freeman Chair Professor at the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC School of Advanced Computing

“To be honest, it was by accident, as most discoveries are. If you can predict it, it's usually not surprising, and probably not significant enough.”

— Joshua Yang

“We are now above 700 degrees, and we suspect it will go higher.”

— Joshua Yang

“Over 92 percent of the computing in AI systems like ChatGPT is nothing but matrix multiplication. This type of device can perform that in the most efficient way, orders of magnitude faster and at lower energy.”

— Joshua Yang

“This is the first step. It's still a long way to go. But logically, you can see: now it makes it possible. The missing component has been made.”

— Joshua Yang

What’s next

The researchers note that while the memristor device itself is a breakthrough, integrating it into a complete high-temperature computing system will require further development of complementary high-temperature logic circuits. The team is working to scale up the manufacturing process and transition the technology from the lab to commercial applications.

The takeaway

This new memristor device represents a major advance in high-temperature electronics, opening up possibilities for applications in extreme environments like space exploration, deep-earth drilling, and energy-efficient AI computing. By overcoming the thermal limitations of conventional silicon-based chips, this technology could enable new frontiers of innovation across multiple industries.