NON-VOLATILE RAD-HARD HIGH-SPEED HIGH-DENSITY LOW POWER RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY ON SILICON

A MONOLITHIC NON-VOLATILE, LOW POWER, HIGH SPEED, AND HIGH DENSITY STATIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) IS BEING INVESTIGATED USING SILICON (BI-MOS) TECHNOLOGY. IT HAS THE SAME NON-VOLATILITY THAT CORE MEMORY OFFERS BUT WITH GREATLYREDUCED POWER CONSUMPTION. IT DOES NOT HAVE LIMITED LIFE-CYCLE PROBLEMS. THE ACCESS TIME IS ESTIMATED TO BE AROUND 15NS. A .28"X28" CHIP CAN ACCOMMODATE 16K BITS. A 2K-WORD BY 8-BIT (16KB) CHIP WHEN OPERATING WOULD CONSUME 276MW, WHICH IS COMPARABLE TO EQUIVALENT VOLATILE COMPLEMENTARY METAL OXIDE SEMICONDUCTOR (CMOS) RAMS AT LOWERSPEEDS. IN THIS STUDY, FEASIBILITY IS BEING DETERMINED THROUGH ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF THE RAM AND IDENTIFICATION OFTHE FABRICATION PROCESS. POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS EXIST FOR THE FAST NON-VOLATILE STATIC RAM IN THE REPLACEMENT OF THE VOLATILE RAM CURRENTLY USED IN ALL COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONIC GEARS. IT WOULD BE A SAFEGUARD AGAINST POWER FAILURE OR AS A MEANS TO ELIMINATE THE COSTLY BACK-UP POWER SUPPLY.