Weebit-Nano’s First Small Steps on the NV Memory Road

Photo of Ron Neale, Renowned Phase-Change Memory ExpertIn this post contributor Ron Neale analyzes Weebit Nano’s recently-announced memory array, based on SiO and an Ovonic Threshold Switch selector developed by CEA-Leti in France.   Ron employs his extensive background in Ovonic devices to try and sleuth out the characteristics of both the memory element and the selector, and to understand some of the inner workings of the cell.


Weebit-Nano (Hod Hasharon, Israel), have recently reported some first steps on the path they have outlined to meet their bold claim of Continue reading “Weebit-Nano’s First Small Steps on the NV Memory Road”

Observations on the “Universal Law” for NV Memory Cells

Photo of Ron Neale, Renowned Phase-Change Memory ExpertRon Neale returns to The Memory Guy blog to discuss a “Universal Law” about memory elements and selectors that was presented by CEA Leti at the IEEE’s 2019 IEDM conference last December.


At IEDM 2019 D. Alfaro Robayo et al presented a paper titled: Reliability and Variability of 1S1R OxRAM-OTS for High Density Crossbar Integration that had a rather interesting claim of a “Universal Law”.  It is possible that some links to the past might help to provide an explanation for Continue reading “Observations on the “Universal Law” for NV Memory Cells”

Hprobe’s Vote for MRAM

Hprobe Perpendicular Magnetic Field UnitHprobe: a test equipment manufacturer based in Grenoble France, has cast its vote for MRAM to succeed in the emerging memory battle.  It has created a piece of production test equipment dedicated to MRAM technology.

The company has developed a new perpendicular magnetic generator module that allows Continue reading “Hprobe’s Vote for MRAM”

NV Stacked Memory: Selectors and Forming (Part 1)

Ron NealeIn this first post of a five-part series contributor Ron Neale analyzes selector technologies presented by CEA Leti at the 2018 IEDM conference last December.


At the close of last year the IEDM maintained its long-standing reputation for offering across-the-board the right focus at the right time on important and key parts of the electronic device discipline.   For those with an interest in the future of stacked or 3D NV-memory arrays there were a number of important papers and presentations on a variety of thin film memory selectors or matrix isolation devices (MIDs).

Important, because as the move towards stacked memory arrays for storage class memory (SCM) and persistent  memory (PM) applications gains momentum, the thin film selector may be the device which is key in determining the performance and reliability for a number of different types of NV memory arrays or even the very existence of that type of memory array.  One of the important and poorly understood variables in the mix is the selector forming voltage and the structural changes which lead from it to the operating device threshold voltage which, in my view needs a lot more by way of detailed understanding.

As the memory array moves into Continue reading “NV Stacked Memory: Selectors and Forming (Part 1)”

WIOMING: Another Spin on the Hybrid Memory Cube

ST-Ericsson & CEA-Leti WIOMING Multichip ModuleAt a Conference in San Francisco today (Tuesday December 13 ) ST-Ericsson and CEA-Leti presented a paper on something the companies called a: “Breakthrough 3DIC with Wide I/O Interface.”

This product appears to be a variation on the Hybrid Memory Cube, or HMC concept detailed in a prior post.

Remember that the HMC stacks a number of DRAM chips atop a logic chip.  The memories store data and communicate to the logic chip through thousands of through-silicon vias (TSVs) while the logic chip handles communications with the outside world. Continue reading “WIOMING: Another Spin on the Hybrid Memory Cube”