Life cycle assessment of digital memories: The memristor’s environmental footprint

Abstract

Memristor technologies, pivotal in the evolution of energy-efficient digital devices, have the potential to revolutionize fields like non-volatile memories, hardware cryptography, neuromorphic computing and artificial intelligence acceleration. This study applies Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to analyse the environmental impact of five memristor designs, focusing on materials and manufacturing processes. The analysis adheres to ISO 14040–44 standards and employs the ReCiPe methodology to evaluate 18 environmental impact categories, emphasizing categories such as freshwater ecotoxicity and global warming potential. The results highlight significant variations in environmental impacts across the designs, largely attributed to differences in active layer materials and manufacturing processes. Molybdenum exhibits the highest impact, particularly in freshwater ecotoxicity, while SiO₂ demonstrates the lowest overall impact. Manufacturing processes like sputtering and photolithography carried out at laboratory scale contribute disproportionately to energy consumption and environmental damage, suggesting that upscaling production to industrial efficiencies is mandatory to mitigate these impacts. Furthermore, several materials required for memristor fabrication are listed as critical by the International Energy Agency (IEA), raising concerns about supply security, resource scarcity and environmental sustainability. This analysis serves as a foundational step for optimizing memristor technologies, balancing performance demands with environmental stewardship. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment that compares multiple memristor architectures using real laboratory data and evaluates their environmental impacts. This work provides a methodological foundation for future sustainability assessments in the context of emerging memory technologies.