Crossbar could commercialize ultradense 3D resistive RAM before HP memristors

Crossbar has developed a simple and easily manufactured RRAM-based memory technology that can scale up to 1 terabyte (TB) on a chip the size of a postage stamp. Its simple structure allows 3D stacking for multiple terabytes on a chip. Manufactured with standard CMOS processes, the simplicity of Crossbar’s RRAM technology makes it possible to easily stack non-volatile memory on top of microcontroller and other logic on FPGAs and highly integrated SOCs at advanced nodes.

With 20X higher performance and 20X lower power than NAND, and 10x the endurance at half the die size, Crossbar has shattered traditional technology barriers for NOR (code), NAND (data) and embedded memory applications and will enable a new wave of electronics innovation for consumer, enterprise, mobile, industrial and connected device applications.

Demonstrated at IEDM, Crossbar’s selector solves the sneak path problem by achieving the highest reported selectivity of 10^10, as well as an extremely sharp turn-on slope of less than 5mV/dec, fast turn-on and recovery (less than 50 nanosecond), an endurance greater than 100M cycles, and a processing temperature less than 300°C, all ensuring commercial viability. The company was able to achieve this by developing a patent-protected special architecture in the Crossbar RRAM cells, putting them into a low-voltage state before certain thresholds, enabling a single transistor to drive over 2,000 memory cells with very low power.

Objective Analysis Jim Handy thinks 2023 as the year that this, or some competing technology, will displace flash or DRAM. Entrenched technologies will be with us for some time. Until then, this and all the other technologies vying to replace DRAM and flash will be relegated to niches

This is serious technology looking for a semi-conductor foundry partner to commit to manufacture. If Handy is right then we might see niche product emerging in the next 18 – 24 months. It will have to compete with HP’s Memristor and Micron’s PCM with HGST demoing a PCIe card PCM concept using Micron chips recently.

SOURCES – Crossbar, Register UK