Writing for Electronics 360 (IHS), Peter Clarke reports that Rambus has signed up customers for its metal-oxide based resistive RAM technology (ReRAM).
“[For example, Rambus] signed an architectural license with Tezzaron Semiconductor Corp. (Naperville, Illinois), a supplier of 3D and 2.5D memory, memory subsystems and memory-intensive SOCs,” said Clarke.
“Tezzaron is expected to build storage-class 3D non-volatile memory systems for military, aerospace and commercial applications. Tezzaron’s first ReRAM devices are scheduled for production in 2016.”
As Rambus CEO Ron Black noted during a recent conference call with analysts, the performance of resistance RRAM has been “very good.”
“Probably the biggest hurdle in terms of opening it up is getting the high temperature stability,” he explained. “So in consumer applications, I think the existing temperature ranges that we have are fine but to really hit industrial and automotive grade we are going to have to continue to tweak or with our customers, going to have to continue to tweak the bit cells to really ensure that they are stable. So if we can get past that, I can see it becoming mainstream rather quickly.”
As we’ve previously discussed on Rambus Press, resistive random-access memory is a type of non-volatile (NV) random-access (RAM) that operates by changing the resistance across a dielectric.
In its normal state, the dielectric has very high resistance and doesn’t conduct electricity. Applying just the right voltage across that dielectric can create small conductive filaments that allow electricity to flow. This process is reversible, leading to a memory. Some researchers have started calling this type of memory device a memristor.
To help further develop RRAM technology, Rambus recently confirmed a partnership with researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. According to Rambus Labs VP Gary Bronner, RRAM could potentially capture a lucrative position between flash memory and DRAM.
“Many semiconductor companies have expressed a strong interest in ReRAM,” Bronner added. “As such, our collaborative goal with Tsinghua researchers is to explore how to further improve the non-volatile memory so that it is ultimately suitable for consumer devices as well as more demanding platforms and environments.”
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