San Jose, California (PRWEB) December 15, 2011
MonolithIC 3D Inc., a leading 3D-IC company, announced its 3D NAND flash memory technology yesterday. The technology, interestingly, uses monocrystalline silicon for transistors in contrast to the polysilicon approaches of companies such as Toshiba, Samsung, Hynix and Micron. Considering that monocrystalline silicon offers 3x-6x higher mobility and dramatically lower variability compared to polysilicon, the quality of memory cells is expected to be significantly better.
“We believe this is a breakthrough”, said Zvi Or-Bach, President and CEO of MonolithIC 3D Inc. “Moving to monocrystalline silicon memory cells allows Multi-Level Cell (MLC) capability, making these 3D NAND flash memory solutions more cost-competitive and scalable.”
The NAND flash memory industry is currently manufacturing products at the 2x nm node, and is transitioning to the 19nm node over the next year. One or two generations of conventional scaled NAND flash are expected beyond that, following which 3D memory approaches are expected to become mainstream. Toshiba, Samsung, Hynix and Micron have aggressively invested in monolithic 3D technologies, and impressive progress is being made with every passing day.
Dr. Deepak Sekar, the Chief Scientist of MonolithIC 3D Inc., noted, “Our technology reduces the risks involved with 3D flash memory considerably, since we allow the industry to stick to tried-and-tested single crystal silicon transistors and the aspect ratios involved are lower. We’re hoping this will enable commercialization and keep the industry on an aggressive scaling path. ”
MonolithIC 3D Inc. has several issued and allowed patents on the technology, with a total of 5 issued and 50 pending patents. It intends to license its Intellectual Property (IP) to existing players in the memory industry. Further details about the technology are available on the company’s blog.
About MonolithIC 3D Inc.
MonolithIC 3D Inc. is an IP company dedicated to innovation in semiconductor design and fabrication. It invented and developed a practical path to the monolithic 3D Integrated Circuit, which includes multiple derivatives for Logic, Memory and Electro Optic devices. The company was recently selected as a finalist of the Best of Semicon West 2011, which recognizes the most important product and technology developments at Semicon West. More information about the company, including detailed technical information, can be found at its website.
# # #