Emerging Memory Technologies: Recent Trends and Prospects

• Published in: IEEE solid state circuits magazine Vol. 8; no. 2; pp. 43 - 56
• Main Authors: Yu, Shimeng, Chen, Pai-Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.01.2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Arrays; Computer architecture; Computer memory; Design analysis; Devices; Electrodes; Field programmable gate arrays; Flip-flops; Magnetic tunneling; Microprocessors; Nonvolatile memory; Phase change random access memory; Random access memory; Three dimensional; Trends
• ISSN: 1943-0582; 1943-0590
• DOI: 10.1109/MSSC.2016.2546199

This tutorial introduces the basics of emerging nonvolatile memory (NVM) technologies including spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memory (STTMRAM), phase-change random access memory (PCRAM), and resistive random access memory (RRAM). Emerging NVM cell characteristics are summarized, and device-level engineering trends are discussed. Emerging NVM array architectures are introduced, including the one-transistor-one-resistor (1T1R) array and the cross-point array with selectors. Design challenges such as scaling the write current and minimizing the sneak path current in cross-point array are analyzed. Recent progress on megabit-to gigabit-level prototype chip demonstrations is summarized. Finally, the prospective applications of emerging NVM are discussed, ranging from the last-level cache to the storage-class memory in the memory hierarchy. Topics of three-dimensional (3D) integration and radiation-hard NVM are discussed. Novel applications beyond the conventional memory applications are also surveyed, including physical unclonable function for hardware security, reconfigurable routing switch for field-programmable gate array (FPGA), logic-in-memory and nonvolatile cache/register/flip-flop for nonvolatile processor, and synaptic device for neuro-inspired computing.