In the space of semiconductor memories there are nowadays a large number of established as well as emerging technologies present (e.g. Flash, DRAM, FRAM, MRAM, PCM, RRAM). However, with society moving into the next wave of innovation, i.e. the Internet-of-Things, a memory technology is required that can fulfill three major attributes:
- Extremely low power write and read operations
- High speed / high data throughput
- Low-cost for both end customer and manufacturer
Considering both established as well as emerging memory concepts, none of these can fulfill the needs of the semiconductor chips that have to be utilized in the age of Internet-of-Things.
In 2007, i.e. at the time Intel introduced hafnium oxide (HfO2) into CMOS manufacturing, scientists in Dresden, Germany discovered that exactly this same material can obtain ferroelectric properties under very specific conditions.
In 2016, FMC is now introducing HfO2 as ferroelectric memory material ideally suited for the needs of the Internet-of-Things and beyond. The new memory material is expected to trigger a wave of innovation across the whole computing value chain, from manufacturing up to the software level.