SBIR-STTR Award

This program will further develop a new, proprietary, radiation-hard, low-power, high-density, non-volatile semiconductor memory technology with the potential to address NASA program needs for space qualifiable mass memory. The devices are based on thin-film structural phase-change memory materials, related to those currently used in rewriteble optical disks. Prototype devices have already demonstrated extended programming endurance (in excess of 1013 cycles), low voltage operation ( < 3 V), and high programming speed (less than 50 nsec). Research proposed for Phase I will investigate the scaling of programming energy with device size and demonstrate operational test structures suitable for integration into memory arrays using 0.18 micrometer photolithography.

Potential Commercial Applications:
The new thin-film non-volatile memory technology can form the basis for a range of low-cost, high-density mass storage devices, initially replacing FLASH EEPROM, and eventually, possibly also replacing DRAM and SRAM type memories. Their fundamentally robust, radiation-hard characteristics will allow them to address critical aerospace and military needs as well as a range of portable consumer electronics applications.