Emerging Memories Take Off and Impact on Manufacturing and Test Equipment

DUBLIN, Jan. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The “Emerging Memories Take Off (2021)” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

This report address technology developments in non-volatile solid state storage and memory technologies and the impact on manufacturing and test equipment. These non-volatile memory/storage products will impact the digital storage/memory hierarchy including DRAM, SRAM, NOR Flash, NAND Flash and hard disk drives.

Current memory technologies including flash memory (NAND and NOR), DRAM, and SRAM are facing potential technology limits to their continued improvement. As a result, there are intense efforts to develop new memory technologies. Most of these new technologies utilize nonvolatile memory technologies and can be used for long-term storage or to provide a memory that does not lose information when power is not applied. This offers advantages for battery and ambient powered devices and also for energy savings in data centers.

The memories addressed in this report include PCM, RRAM, FRAM, MRAM, STT MRAM and a variety of less mainstream technologies such as carbon nanotubes. Based upon the level of current development and the characteristics of these technologies, resistive RAM (RRAM) appears to be a potential replacement for flash memory. However, flash memory has several generations of technologies that will be implemented before a replacement is required. Thus, this transition will not fully occur until the next decade at the earliest.

Micron and Intel’s introduction of 3D XPoint Memory, a technology that has high endurance, performance much better than NAND, although somewhat slower than DRAM, and higher density than DRAM; is impacting the need for DRAM. Intel introduced NVMe SSDs with its Optane technology (using 3D XPoint) in 2017 and started shipping DIMM-Optane modules in 2019. 3D XPoint uses a type of phase change technology.

Magnetic RAM (MRAM) and spin tunnel torque RAM (STT MRAM) are starting to replace sNOR, SRAM and possibly DRAM. The rate of development in STT MRAM and MRAM capabilities will result in gradually lower prices, and the attractiveness of replacing volatile memory with high speed and high endurance nonvolatile memory makes these technologies very competitive, assuming that their volume increases to reduce production costs (and thus purchase prices).

Story continues

Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) and some RRAM technologies have some niche applications and with the use of HfO FRAM, the number of niche markets available for FRAM could increase in number.

Moving to a nonvolatile solid-state main memory and cache memory will reduce power usage directly as well as enable new power-saving modes, provide faster recovery from power off and enable more stable computer architectures that retain their state even when power is off. Eventually, spintronic technology, that uses spin rather than current for logic processes, could be used to make future microprocessors. Spin-based logic could enable very efficient in-memory processing.

The use of a nonvolatile technology as an embedded memory combined with CMOS logic has great importance in the electronics industry. As a replacement for a multi-transistor SRAM, STT MRAM could reduce the number of transistors and thus provide a low cost, higher-density solution. A number of enterprise and consumer devices use MRAM, acting as an embedded cache memory, and all of the major foundry companies are offering MRAM as embedded memory in SoC products.

The availability of STT MRAM has accelerated this trend and allows higher capacities. Because of the compatibility of MRAM and STT-RAM processes with conventional CMOS processes, these memories can be built directly on top of CMOS logic wafers or potentially incorporated during CMOS manufacturing.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction

3. Why Emerging Memories are Popular

• Scaling Limits for Entrenched Technologies

• 3D Nand Flash Technologies

• Future Flash Memories

• Embedded Nor and Sram Scaling Challenges

• Standalone Nand & Dram Scaling Concerns

• Technical Advantages

• Alternatives to Using Emerging Memories

• Potential Cost/Gb Advantages

• The Crucial Importance of the Economies of Scale

• Which Applications Want Emerging Memories First?

4. How a New Memory Layer Improves Computer Performance

• How Persistence Changes the Memory/Storage Hierarchy (Storage Class Memories)

• STT MRAM

• Reram

• Changes in Computer Memory Usage

• Standardizing the Persistent Memory Software Interface

• In-Memory Computing Possibilities

• Fewer Constraints on MCU Programmers

5. Understanding Bit Selectors

6. Resistive Ram, Reram, Rram, Memristor

• Reram Device Function

• Symetrix’ Ceram

• HP’s Memristor

• Stacked Reram Arrays

• Reram Cmos Integration

• 3D Stacked Reram Crosspoint Specifications

• 3D Nand Approach to Reram

• Reram and Artificial Intelligence

• Current Reram Status

7. Ferroelectric RAM, FERAM, FRAM

• Operation of FRAM

• Fram Device Characteristics

• Ferroelectric Field Effect Transistor RAM (Fefet)

• 3D Fefet FRAM

• Antiferroelectrics and Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions

• The Future of FRAM

8. Phase Change Memory (PCM)

9. Intel/Micron 3D Crosspoint Memory

10. MRAM (Magnetic RAM), STT MRAM (Spin Transfer Torque MRAM)

• MRAM

• STT MRAM

• How STT Works

• STT Manufacturing

• STT Strengths & Weaknesses

• Spin-Orbit Torque MRAM

• Meram, an Alternative Spin Memory Device

• Racetrack Memory

• MRAM in Artificial Intelligence

11. Other Emerging Memory Types

12. Lithography

13. 3D Memory Circuit Design

14. Summary of Solid-State Memory & Storage Technologies

15. Emerging Memories and New Materials

16. Emerging Memory Process Equipment

• MRAM AND STT MRAM Process Equipment

• Physical Vapor Deposition

• Ion Beam and Plasma Etching

• Photolithography (Patterning)

• Other Process Equipment

• Device Testing

• MRAM and STT MRAM Consortia

• Phase Change Manufacturing Equipment

17. Memory is Driving Semiconductor Capital Spending

18. Market Projections for MRAM, and 3D Xpoint Memory

19. Estimates of MRAM Capital Equipment Demand

• Ion Beam Etching Equipment

• Patterning Equipment

• Magnetic Annealing Equipment

• Physical Vapor Deposition Equipment

• Test and Other Equipment

• Summary of MRAM Equipment Demand

20. Company Information

Memory and Applications Companies

• 4DS Memory

• Adesto Technologies

• Ambiq

• Antaios

• ARM

• Avalanche Technology

• BAE Systems

• Besang

• Caes

• Cao-Sip

• Cea-Leti

• Cerfe Labs

• Cies

• Cobham-Aeroflex

• Crocus Technology

• Crossbar

• Cypress

• Dialog Semiconductor

• Evaderis

• Everspin

• Ferroelectric Memory Company

• Fujitsu Semiconductor

• Gigadevice Semiconductor, Inc.

• Globalfoundries

• Grandis

• Great

• HPE

• Honeywell

• IBM

• Imec

• Institute of Microelectronics (Chinese Academy of Science)

• Infineon

• Integrated Device Technology (IDT)

• Intel

• Intermolecular

• Intrinsic

• Kioxia

• Knowm

• Lapis Semiconductor

• Leti

• Microchip

• Micron Technology

• Microsemi

• Namlab

• Nantero

• NEC

• Numem

• Nuvoton

• NVE

• NXP

• Ovonyx

• Panasonic

• Qualcomm

• Rambus

• Ramtron

• Reliance Memory

• Renesas Electronics

• Rohm

• Samsung Semiconductor

• Sandisk

• Seagate Technology

• SK Hynix

• Sony Corporation

• Spin-Ion

• Spin Memory

• Spintec

• STMicroelectronics

• Symetrix

• TDK

• Texas Instruments

• Thin Film Electronics

• Unidym

• Weebit Nano

• Western Digital

• Winbond

Semiconductor Fab Companies

• DB Hitek

• Globalfoundries

• Silterra

• Smic

• Towerjazz

• TSMC

• UMC

Capital Equipment Companies

• Accretech

• Anelva

• Applied Materials

• ASM

• ASML

• Bruker

• Canon

• Canon-Anelva

• Capres A/S

• EG Systems

• Hitachi High Technology

• Hprobe

• Integral Solutions, Inc. (Isi)

• Jusung Engineering

• Keysight Technologies

• Kla Tencor

• Lake Shore

• Lam Research

• Leuven Instruments

• Magoasis

• Microsense

• Nanomagnetics Instruments

• Nanometrics

• Neoark

• Nikon

• Onto Innovation

• Oxford Instruments

• Plasma Therm

• SHB

• Singulus Technologies

• Smart Tip

• Tokyo Electron

• Tokyo Seimitsu

• Ulvac

• Veeco

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7kmk4f

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