New memory cells bid goodbye to leaks and capacitors

Article Abstract:

The New Jersey Institute of Technology has developed a direct-tunneling diode that improves the reliability of flash memory by eliminating the mechanism that damages the dielectrics of conventional flash cells. Flash memory retains its data when the power is turned off by storing data on a second gate that floats between a transistor's gate and the channel. The floating gate is insulated by a dielectric layer and has no electric contact with the rest of the device, which makes it nonvolatile. Charges are added or removed from the floating gate by avalanche injection or through Fowler-Nordheim tunneling, but both techniques require high energy to pass through the dielectric, which creates defects that cause electronics to leak off the gate. Beau Farmer and other researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology used direct tunneling to move electrons onto and off the floating gate. The electronic energy is low enough to avoid damage to the dielectric, but the process cannot be used with thin oxides. Two dielectrics are stacked on top of each other and separated by a layer of crystalline silicon. Also described is work by researchers at Hitachi and Cambridge University on a memory cell for DRAMs that eliminates the bulky storage capacitor of the regular memory cell.

New Jersey, Random Access Memory Circuits, Innovations, Integrated circuit fabrication, Flash memory, RAM (Random access memory), Product introduction, New Jersey Institute of Technology, New technique

---

Microprocessors: the off-beat generation

Article Abstract:

Nontraditional applications are freeing circuit designers from bondage to legacy software, opening the way for new, streamlined kinds of microprocessors. Three examples are described. The first, being developed by IBM, is a design called Blue Gene, meant for use in a supercomputer expected to be 250 times more powerful than the fastest existing such device. The envisioned computer would be used to study biological systems. The second example, being developed by Sun Microsystems, involves an architecture called Microprocessor Architecture for Java Computing, or MAJC (pronounced magic). This architecture is meant for processing communications data in real time. The third example, called Nios, is a system on a programmable chip, being developed at Altera Corp.

Nonmanufacturing technology, Integrated circuit design, Circuit design, Design and construction

---

RF bridges to the network

Article Abstract:

Chips for communications have become drivers of semiconductor industry developments. Devices that function at the interface between electronics and wireless networks, and for ciruits at the interface between electronics and fiber optics networks, involve new integrated circuit (IC) materials, as well as new processes, performance criteria and design technologies. Today's wireless networks transmit at speeds between 800MHz and 2.4GHz, and optical networks transmit at up to 40GHz, and networks are getting faster.

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Mergers add value to plastics additives. Ion exchange charges ahead
• Abstracts: A Messenger from Eden for crop pests and diseases. Pushing the limits of turbine efficiency. Let that dirt be!
• Abstracts: A little-known chemical bids for new roles. Wet CO2-scrubbing lowers the cost of hydrogen production. Silica membranes improve pervaporation system capability
• Abstracts: The virtual surgeon. Understanding the human genome. Making chips to probe genes

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.