Jan 19 2010
Demand for ultra-small, fast memories with high capacity is ever increasing but, because of architectural limitations, downscaling to dimensions smaller than 45 nm has become challenging. Now, Jia Fu, Navab Singh and co-workers at the A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore have developed a new type of nanowire-based memory-dubbed TAHOS-which may circumvent this problem1.
Until now, one of the most successful types of non-volatile memories has been ‘flash’ memory. In this device, the information-in this case electrical charge-is stored in each memory cell on a floating gate that is programmed or erased by applying a voltage to a control gate. The information is then read by passing a current between the source and drain contacts through a channel situated under the floating gate, in a setup resembling a standard field-effect transistor.
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