Space Qualified Nonvolatile Memory Leveraging Commercial Fabrication Technolofy

Structured Materials Industries, Inc. recently demonstrated excellent nonvolatile memory properties of a nonlinear dielectric. Within this Phase I SBIR we will transition our preliminary results to model the device and thin-film for a backside gate control EEPROM architecture to be integrated within an established foundry process. This revolutionary architecture is applicable to military and commercial applications, however our intention is to establish a complete radiation hardened device capability by characterizing the intrinsic radiation hardness of the intended state-of-the-art foundry process. Once installed, the technology has the potential to introduce a wide range of radiation hardened nonvolatile memory products that are produced in a cost effective silicon process. Our Phase II effort will begin the installation of the thin-film into the foundry, develop a test chip vehicle for employment of design hardening techniques targeting TID 1Mrad(Si) or greater and prompt dose hardening of 1E10 rad/s or greater and verify program produced devices radiation performance. Our Phase III commercialization will consist of introducing strategically hardened nonvolatile EEPROM (16 - 32Mbits in density) followed by other components requiring embedded memory, as well as the sales of process equipment and licensing of program produced technology. Successful completion of this program will benefit military and aerospace end users with low cost per memory bit nonvolatile memory, system designers requiring radiation hardened nonvolatile memory, as well as commercial device manufacturers utilizing the backside gate control process.