Low-Cost Radiation-Hard Nonvolatile Random-Access Memory

ABSTRACT: PrivaTran will measure the radiation tolerance of new memristive materials and will design, model and simulate advanced memristor-based architectures for nonvolatile random access memory (RAM). The requirements for proper memory element isolation, programming voltage drive and current sense circuitry will be determined by circuit analysis. Memristor circuit models will be developed and used to trade different memristor types and optimize performance to the technical program objectives. Viable circuit topologies will be identified that enable high-density data storage solutions for aerospace and defense applications. Phase II prototype fabrication and commercialization work plans will be developed including a manufacturability analysis addressing materials compatibility and integration methods for insertion into current CMOS and BJT platforms as well as scaling the technology to the 10nm technology node and beyond. BENEFIT: The benefits of the proposed memristor architecture and materials include low-power nonvolatile memory operation, inherent radiation tolerance, good data retention over large temperature extremes, compatibility with three-dimensional (3D) memory architecture, fast switching speeds, large ON/OFF dynamic range, vacuum compatibility, highly-localized switching, good immunity to EMI, and unipolar switching, thus enabling a low-cost, high-density, memristor-based RAM that can be directly inserted into current and future Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) and Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) semiconductor manufacturing platforms to provide a solution for aerospace and defense systems with the combined performance of conventional hard disk, RAM and FLASH memory technology.