SEOUL, March 13 (Xinhua) -- South Korean scientists have developed the world's first 8-nanometer non-volatile flash memory unit cell that can be built into a semiconductor chip, South Korea' s Ministry of Science and Technology said Tuesday.

According to the ministry, the creation of the new flash memory was possible by the merging of nanowires with the silicon-oxcide-nitride-oxcide-silicon technology. The researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), led by Professor Choi Yang-kyu, said they developed the three-dimensional, terabit flash memory unit cell by successively placing layers of oxide, nitride and oxide (ONO) on top of the silicon nano-wires that act as conduits for electrons in the flash memory.

The ministry said South Korea will make efforts to transfer the technology to the civilian sector. Choi said it will probably take up to 10 years before this technology can be used to make fully operational chips.

A fully developed tera-level NAND flash memory can hold 500,000 audio songs in an MP3 file format or record 1,250 DVD films and 1 million high resolution photos within a space equal to that of a person's fingernail. A nanometer is equal to one-billionth of a meter, roughly one-12,000th the thickness of an average person's hair.