Japanese boffins develop long-life Flash

The continuing miniaturization of conventional Flash memory chips threatens to reduce their lifetime. This and other factors make conventional high-density Flash cells unworkable at circuit sizes below 20 nanometers, the scientists claim. The new ferroelectric Nand Flash memory cell developed by the Japanese scientists can be scaled down to at least 10 nanometers. The next generation of conventional flash cells will use a 30 nanometer circuit density.

The ferroelectric Flash memory cell can be rewritten more than 100 million times, compared to a conventional cells lifetime of around 10,000, its inventors claim. To prolong their life Flash memory chips use a 'wear-leveling' process in which all cells are used equally, and worn out cells are 'retired' without disabling the whole chip. The ferroelectric cells use a rewriting voltage of fewer than six volts, compared to about 20 volts for conventional chips.