Phase Change Memory Technology from IBM, Macronix and Qimonda

IBM, Macronix and Qimonda announced a new type of computer memory with the potential to be the successor to flash memory chips. Working together at IBM Research labs on both U.S. coasts, the scientists designed, built and demonstrated a prototype phase-change memory device that switched more than 500 times faster than flash while using less than one-half the power to write data into a cell. The device’s cross-section is a minuscule 3 by 20 nanometers in size, far smaller than flash can be built today and equivalent to the industry’s chip-making capabilities targeted for 2015.

The IBM/Macronix/Qimonda joint project’s phase-change memory achievement is important because it demonstrates a new non-volatile phase-change material that can switch more than 500 times faster than flash memory, with less than one-half the power consumption, and, most significantly, achieves these desirable properties when scaled down to at least the 22-nanometer node, two chip-processing generations beyond floating-gate flash’s predicted brick wall.

The technical details of this research will be presented this week at the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineer’s (IEEE’s) 2006 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco (Paper 30.3: “Ultra-Thin Phase-Change Bridge Memory Device Using GeSb” by Y.C. Chen et al. Wednesday morning, December 13.) This paper was also one of only five to be chosen for the “Highlights of 2006 IEDM” session at the IEEE’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference, which will be held in San Francisco in February 2007.

Source: IBM Promising new memory chip technology