ReRAM Gains Even More Steam

By Michael Watts - 19 Nov, 2015 - Comments: 0

The prospect of using the latest in finFET processing to enable embedded non-volatile memory (NWM) will be described by a team from TSMC and Tsing Hua University in Taiwan at the IEDM meeting on Dec. 8 in Washington, D.C. Embedded NVM has been the first commercial application of ReRam, with products from Panasonic and Terrazon. Industry leaders agree the creation of NVM as a seamless additio... » read more

ReRAM Gains Steam

By Michael Watts - 12 Nov, 2015 - Comments: 1

Resistive RAM appears to be gaining traction. Once considered a universal memory candidate—a replacement for DRAM, flash and SRAM—ReRAM is carving out a niche between DRAM and storage-class memory. Now the question is how large that niche ultimately becomes and whether other competing technologies rush into that space. [getkc id="94" kc_name="ReRAM"] (known alternately as RRAM), is a typ... » read more

Inside The MRAM

By Mark LaPedus - 17 Sep, 2015 - Comments: 0

Today, the industry is shipping various next-generation nonvolatile memory types, such as 3D NAND, MRAM and ReRAM. In fact, MRAM has been shipping for some time. To get a handle on MRAM, Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss the technology with Phillip LoPresti, president and chief executive of Everspin, a supplier of MRAMs. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Where ... » read more

ALD Market Heats Up

By Mark LaPedus - 17 Sep, 2015 - Comments: 1

Amid the shift to 3D NAND, finFETs and other device architectures, the atomic layer deposition (ALD) market is heating up on several fronts. Applied Materials, for example, recently moved to shakeup the landscape by rolling out a new, high-throughput ALD tool. Generally, [getkc id="250" kc_name="ALD"] is a process that deposits materials layer-by-layer at the atomic level, enabling thin and ... » read more

Memory Hierarchy Shakeup

By Mark LaPedus - 16 Sep, 2015 - Comments: 0

It’s no secret that today’s memory chips and storage devices are struggling to keep up with the growing demands in data processing. To solve the problem, chipmakers have been working on several next-generation memory types. But most technologies have been delayed or fallen short of their promises. But after numerous delays, a new wave of next-generation, nonvolatile memories are finally ... » read more

Electronics Butterfly Effect

By Brian Bailey - 27 Aug, 2015 - Comments: 1

Everyone has heard of the butterfly effect where a small change in a non-linear system can result in large difference in an outcome. For the past 40 years, the electronics industry has approximated a linear system, fed primarily by Moore’s Law. The incremental changes available at each new process node have led us to make incremental changes and improvements in many aspects of the design, its... » read more

Inside The 5G Smartphone

By Mark LaPedus - 20 Aug, 2015 - Comments: 3

Amid a slowdown in the cell phone business, the market is heating up for perhaps the next big thing in wireless—5th generation mobile networks or 5G. In fact, major carriers, chipmakers and telecom equipment vendors are all rushing to get a piece of the action in 5G, which is the follow-on to the current wireless standard known as 4G or long-term evolution (LTE). Intel, Samsung and Qualcom... » read more

5 Technologies To Watch

By Mark LaPedus - 23 Jul, 2015 - Comments: 0

The industry is developing a dizzying array of new technologies. In fact, there are more new and innovative technologies than ever before. And the list is countless. At least from my vantage point, I have come up with my own list of the top five technologies to watch in 2015 and beyond. They are listed in alphabetical order. (See below). Obviously, there are more than just five technologi... » read more

3 Ways To Reload Moore’s Law

By Michael Watts - 18 Jun, 2015 - Comments: 1

The electronics revolution has been enabled because the cost and power per transistor has decreased 30% per year for the last 30 years — a fact usually associated with Moore's Law. This has been accomplished by simply reducing the transistor size while offsetting increased costs of equipment and mask levels, and by increased productivity from improved yield, throughput and wafer size. This... » read more

Drill Down: Embedded NVM Technology

By Ernest Worthman - 02 Apr, 2015 - Comments: 0

Many of the next-generation devices that will be seen on the IoT/E will have power, footprint, and electronic constraints as never before. Electronic flash memories (eFLASH), and their derivatives are seen as a realistic solution to many of these design constraints for small form factor and simple IoE devices. “NVM will be very important for the IoE from the perspective of saving power," ... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
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