NightOwl:
From article by:
By Peter Clarke
Semiconductor Business News
(11/07/02 07:24 a.m. EST)
1. Texas Instruments Inc. is jumping into the next-generation universal memory fray with hard-hitting support for ferroelectric RAM, heralding its suitability as a replacement for embedded flash and embedded DRAM.
2. “We would like to be in production [with embedded ferroelectric RAM] in 2005 on 90-nanometer process technology,” Dennis Buss, vice president of R&D and manufacturing at Texas Instruments, told SBN. “The fact that we are demonstrating on a standard 130-nm flow makes that readily achievable.”
3. “We've chosen ferroelectric for two reasons; it takes just two additional masks and the maturity of the technology. Fujitsu has already shipped 100-million units of stand-alone FRAM. So we know manufacturing problems can be solved,” said Buss...“It's very simple economics. A DSP needs six layers of metal and 26 masks, DRAM needs, say three layers of metal and 26 or 28 masks. The trouble is they are not the same masks and to do the two together you need 32 masks or more. It always comes out unfavorable to embedded manufacture because of the number of layers.”“Ferroelectric memory only requires two additional masks which, given its other characteristics, makes it very attractive.”
4. This move to leading-edge process technology marks a major step-forward for FRAM technology in its race against MRAM and the phase-change memory technologies, Buss said.
5. Ferroelectric RAM has a single-transistor, single-capacitor (1T-1C) structure, similar to a DRAM but with a layer of electrically polarizable material as the storage element and providing the advantage of non-volatile storage. This means that memory cells can be much smaller than flash memory cells and static RAM cells.
6. “We believe FRAM has the potential to become an ideal non-volatile memory option for a wide range of applications in the 2005 timeframe,” said Hans Stork, senior vice president and director of TI's silicon technology development...and TI believes FRAM can change the product dynamics in embedded memory.”
7. The 1.5-volt chips demonstrate the smallest FRAM cells shown-to-date, measuring only 0.54 square micron, TI claimed. At the 90-nm process node, the generation where TI's first embedded FRAM products are expected to appear, the FRAM cells should be 0.35 square microns, the company said.
Entire article follows:
siliconstrategies.com
Note (once again): The significance of TXN's public endorsement of FRAM cannot be overstated...Today's market action, although very positive compared to recent volume and price action, seems muted to me within the context of the real "nature" of the news...RMTR traded as high as $30 just 3 years ago on the basis of a company model and infrastructure that had less than 1/100th the "bite" that the RMTR company model and infrastructure has today with its $50M in annual revenues, its q3 profitability and its tangible "world beating" technology!!! Accumulate, accumulate, accumulate!!! |
