22-Nanometer Memory Switch

Nantero, Inc. (Woburn, MA) announced today that it has fabricated and successfully tested a 22-nm NRAM memory switch. This switch demonstrates that NRAM™ is scalable to numerous process technology nodes over several decades. NRAM is a rewritable memory device that holds its data content without power, making it a potential universal memory and an ideal solution for numerous applications, including portable consumer products.

In addition to the advanced R&D work that resulted in the fabrication of the 22-nm

NRAM switch, Nantero is also engaged in the development of NRAM memory chips at technology nodes in use today. This development is being conducted in production CMOS fabs, and Nantero has already developed a production-compatible process for making NRAM, using only existing tools and processes. Nantero’s NRAM switches have been tested by writing and reading data using three (3) nanosecond cycle times, giving it the potential to match the fastest memories in production today.

NRAM switches are fabricated using Nantero’s proprietary carbon nanotube fabric, covered by US patent 6,706,402. Nantero now has over 80 patent applications pending covering multiple aspects of carbon nanotube use in electronics, of which over a dozen have been granted.

The semiconductor industry is actively evaluating emerging memory technologies in their search for a new scalable memory technology because the memory devices in use today are not expected to scale beyond very few additional process technology nodes. Greg Schmergel, Nantero’s co-founder and CEO, stated, “These results demonstrate that NRAM can be the standalone and embedded memory of choice. NRAM combines the nonvolatility of flash with the speed of SRAM and the density of DRAM.” Greg noted, “We have also proven that NRAM can be scaled for many future generations and we believe the scaling will continue down to below the 5nm technology node.”

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