Freescale Semiconductor is using nanoscale materials to halve the size of flash memory and make it much less expensive.
Motorola spinoff Freescale Semiconductor of Austin, TX, is using nanoscale materials to develop a new generation of flash memory that will be half the size of conventional flash devices and could cost much less. In addition, the technology would make it possible to affordably embed flash and logic devices on the same chip, a move that would save space and energy and improve chip speed. Freescale has already demonstrated a 24-megabit flash device using the materials, and it plans to produce commercial products by the end of 2008.
The world's first four-megabit, magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) chip, according to Freescale Semiconductor, Austin, TX. (Image courtesy of Freescale Semiconductor, Austin, TX.)
[For an illustration of the new flash memory structure click here.]
Flash memory, which is a nonvolatile form of memory (it requires no power to store information), is increasingly common in consumer devices. Today's flash devices store information by applying an electric field to a "floating gate" -- basically a chunk of polycrystalline silicon -- at the center of a transistor. This gate is surrounded by an insulating material, which needs to be relatively thick so that small defects in it don't allow the charge to leak out. As a result, a device like the flash-based iPod Nano, which packs four gigabytes of memory into its small frame, is still carrying around a lot of inactive material.
Freescale's technology, described by Bruce White, manager of advanced CMOS at Freescale, this week at a nanotech conference in Boston, replaces the solid silicon gate with a large number of tiny silicon crystals separated by minute amounts of insulation. In this configuration, a defect in the insulation would let charge escape from only a couple of neighboring nanocrystals, leaving most of the stored charge intact.
The result: much less insulation is needed, so that the memory occupies half as much space. Or, in other words, a flash-based gadget can carry twice as many songs. Cutting down on insulation also decreases the voltage needed to store information. This makes it much easier to integrate flash memory with information processing on the same chip, which reduces costs since the number of steps needed to make the device drops by more than half. "It helps from a cost point of view. It helps from the density point of view," White says. "So overall it's a much better way of making the embedded nonvolatile memory technology."
Intel and STMicroelectronics have formed a joint venture that plans to commercialize phase-change memory.
Two firms have doubled the capacity of phase-change memory, a likely replacement for flash.
A nanotech-enabled device could replace the flash memory used in portable electronics.
Guest (Zmorg77)
RE: "Fazio says the most promising replacement for flash is something called phase-change memory, which uses lasers to switch a material between crystalline and amorphous states. This technology, he says, could scale down to the "5-to-10-nanometer range," a fraction the size of today's memory elements."
For those interested, Phase Change Memory is also known as Ovonic Unified Memory. OUM is being commercialized by Ovonyx a company owned by Energy Conversion Devices and Intel. Ovonyx licensees include Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Intel, Elpida, BAE Systems, Nanochip. IBM, Macronix, SST, Philips, Wintonic, Infineon, and others also have ongoing phase change development projects but are not yet Ovonyx licensees.
LINK:http://www.ovonic.com/sol_srv/3_5_information_sol/information_sol.htm
Another Forced, But Pointless Response From Mrs. Rawlings
The new ideas for the new small and trendy flash drive is a truly genius idea. By making flash drives smaller and less expensive, it allows more people to buy them and since they are small and use less silicon, more of them can be made for the more people that want to buy them. The public is benefiting, because everyone wants a smaller thing of what already is (example: iPod nano) and the companies producing these new flash drives are profiting from it as well. It is a system that is advancing technology.
I think that this new flash drive will be a huge jump in storeing files from the computor. If this device does what they say it will and is cheaper than other forms of memory storage i think that it will be a good investment oppurtunity. If this form of memory is used in many other divices like cell phones and pdas there will be alot of money to be made off it.
Guest (We Have Too Much Homework)
These new ideas about memory both sound efficient and promising. With the new tiny silicon crystals, there are minute amounts of insulation and less unused space in the different appliances. These new flash-based gadgets will not only be smaller but also cheaper and everything is better when it is smaller and cheaper. This company has already come out with one new flash drive, so i trust they will come out with something soon that will help.
I agree, lots of company will race about the flash memory. It will be important way to carry informations in the future. Sot they are going to use cheap materials and get new idea to make more than before. So I guess that everybody will be able to buy flash memory because it will be cheaper than now!
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
This document is part of the “How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements” centralized resource portal. This tutorial provides a detailed guide for measurement and device considerations to take temperature measurements using thermocouples. Get an introduction to thermocouples, which are inexpensive sensing devices widely used with PC-based data acquisition systems. Also review some specific thermocouple examples and learn how thermocouples work and ways to integrate them into a data acquisition measurement system.
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Guest (This is great)
How small is small?
Holy cow
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