Research Bits: Jan. 6


Ultrathin ferroelectric capacitors Researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo and Canon ANELVA Corporation built an ultrathin ferroelectric memory capacitor stack using scandium-substituted aluminum nitride ((Al,Sc)N) thin films with platinum electrodes. The total thickness is just 30nm: a 20nm ferroelectric layer sandwiched between 5nm platinum top and bottom electrodes. “Previous r... » read more

Performance Of A Memory System With FeRAM vs. DRAM (Georgia Tech, Imec, NTUA)


A new technical paper titled "Benchmarking of FERAM-Based Memory System by Optimizing Ferroelectric Device Model" was published by researchers at Georgia Tech, imec and National Technical University of Athens. Abstract "We present a framework for design technology co-optimization (DTCO) of the main memory system with one transistor-one capacitor (1T1C) ferroelectric random access memory (FE... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Don't have time to read this? Check out Semiconductor Engineering's Inside Chips podcast.  The U.S. Department of Commerce is investigating TSMC for potential export control violations involving Huawei chips, reports Reuters. The probe follows TechInsights' teardown of a Huawei AI accelerator chip last year. The foundry, meanwhile, maintains it has not shipped any chips to Huawei since 2020... » read more

Research Bits: Sept. 24


Modeling negative capacitance Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed an open-source 3D simulation framework capable of modeling the atomistic origins of negative capacitance in ferroelectric thin films at the device level. When a material has negative capacitance, it can store a greater amount of electrical charge at lower voltages. The team believes the FerroX fra... » read more

Materials And Technologies For High Temperature, Resilient Electronics


A technical paper titled “Materials for High Temperature Digital Electronics” was published by researchers at University of Pennsylvania, Air Force Research Laboratory, and Ozark Integrated Circuits. Abstract: "Silicon microelectronics, consisting of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, have changed nearly all aspects of human life from communication to transportatio... » read more

Ferroelectric Memories Answer Call For Non-Volatile Alternatives


As system designers seek to manipulate larger data sets while reducing power consumption, ferroelectric memory may be part of the solution. It offers an intermediate step between the speed of DRAM and the stability of flash memory. Changing the polarization of ferroelectric domains is extremely fast, and the polarization remains stable without power for years, if not decades. FeFETs, one of ... » read more

Research Bits: August 29


Resistive switching with hafnium oxide Researchers from the University of Cambridge, Purdue University, University College London, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and University at Buffalo used hafnium oxide to build a resistive switching memory device that processes data in a similar way as the synapses in the human brain. At the atomic level, hafnium oxide has no structure, with the hafni... » read more

28nm-HKMG-Based FeFET Devices For Synaptic Applications


A technical paper titled "28 nm high-k-metal gate ferroelectric field effect transistors based synapses- A comprehensive overview" was published by researchers at Fraunhofer-Institut für Photonische Mikrosysteme IPMS, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and GlobalFoundries. Abstract This invited article we present a comprehensive overview of 28 nm high-k-metal gate-based ferroelectric f... » read more

Ferroelectrics: The Dream Of Negative Capacitance


Ferroelectrics are getting a serious re-examination, as chipmakers look for new options to maintain drive current. Ferroelectric materials can provide non-volatile memory, serving an important functional gap somewhere between DRAM and flash memory. Indeed, ferroelectrics for memory and 2D channels for transistors were two highlights of the recent IEEE Electron Device Meeting. Ferroelectri... » read more

MAC Operation on 28nm High-k Metal Gate FeFET-based Memory Array with ADC (Fraunhofer IPMS/GF)


A technical paper titled "Demonstration of Multiply-Accumulate Operation With 28 nm FeFET Crossbar Array" was published by researchers at Fraunhofer IPMS and GlobalFoundries. Abstract "This letter reports a linear multiply-accumulate (MAC) operation conducted on a crossbar memory array based on 28nm high-k metal gate (HKMG) Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) and ferroelectric fi... » read more

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