Radiation-hardened, Non-volatile Memory for Aerospace and Defense Applications

ABSTRACT: A need exists for a reliable, low cost radiation-hardened, non-volatile (NV) memory in aerospace and defense applications and in reliable, long-life, high-speed NV memory for terrestrial and commercial applications. Present offerings can accomplish the objective, but only at the expense of performance, power, size, and weight. Recent refocus on magnetic memory technologies, stemming from core memory, one of the first successful space-born memories, have shown promise in the possibility of overcoming some of these hurdles, but the devices themselves have been difficult to manufacture, have more active devices per bit, and overall stability has yet to be determined. MxRAM is proposed to solution the needs of the Air Force through the use of a true ferro-magnetic solid state memory device. The device is designed as a true NV Random Access Memory (RAM), with bit stability which is impervious to radiation disruptions, unlimited read / write cycles, a non destructive read cycle, and a number of devices per bit which is able to keep pace with Moore's Law. BENEFIT: The plan for commercialization of this technology is to target low volume critical markets such as life safety, instant on systems, aircraft, and ruggedized platforms. Eventual markets include RAM devices in computers, Portable devices and eventual replacement of traditional hard drive technologies once the cost per gigabit proves to be competitive.