Market Applications of Phase Change Memory (PCM)
Target products for PCM technology address both stand alone memory and embedded memory. Product applications include:
- NOR Flash Memory - PCM is a direct replacement for this very popular type of nonvolatile memory (NVM) used primarily for code storage. PCM also offers the performance capability of eXecute In Place (XIP) operation as NOR flash for improved system level performance, but with improved cycle life, reduced programming time, lower power, smaller cell size, reduced manufacturing cost and enhanced scalability.
- Unified Memory - PCM, with its unique NVM performance attributes, has the ability to create a new class of NVM that combines the capability of other dissimilar memory technologies (volatile and non-volatile) into a single solution. In particular, PCM’s capability of direct bit overwrite (no erase required) and high speed R/W performance coupled with high cycle life endurance, allows it to replace a previous dual chip solution of DRAM and Flash with a single unified memory solution for lower cost, reduced power and smaller form factor.
- DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) - PCM can displace a significant amount of DRAM in both mobile and PC/server applications. PCM today already offers a cell size smaller than DRAM and with PCM’s inherent enhanced scalability over DRAM, the cost advantage of PCM will increase with time. As more volatile DRAM is displaced by non-volatile PCM, significant power savings will be realized, providing extended battery life in mobile applications and significantly reduced power consumption in PC and server applications. Initially, PCM will not be targeted as a direct replacement for all DRAM, but rather to displace a large percentage of DRAM in applications that don’t require the infinite DRAM cycle endurance and can benefit the most from the dramatically reduced power consumption of PCM.
- NAND Flash Memory is the largest growth area of NVM due primarily to its very low cost and continued steep declining cost curve. However, as NAND Flash scales, the random R/W speed performance and cycle endurance continues to degrade, accentuating the need and size of a buffer memory where PCM would be an ideal memory solution. Longer term, when/if NAND Flash cost reduction slows down due to scaling limits (such as reaching a finite number of electrons), there have been innovative proposals to incorporate PCM in multi-layer cross point architectures to be competitive, even in the lowest cost NVM applications.
- Embedded Memory in microprocessors, microcontrollers and System-on-a-Chip (SOC) applications, PCM’s competitive advantage in this very important and growing segment of the semiconductor device market comes from its scalability, small cell size, and ease of integration into existing process flows for logic devices. PCM’s capability to be embedded in these devices enables the high level of integration of memory and logic functions that will be necessary for both high-performance computing and for a wide range of low-cost embedded microcontroller, microprocessor, and SOC applications in consumer and automotive electronic devices.
- Field Programmable Logic Devices (FPLDs) and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are an important segment of the MOS logic market. These devices are widely used in networking infrastructure, video games, computer chipsets, etc. The ability to use PCM technology will permit the manufacture of nonvolatile, high cycle-life reprogrammable devices. This will provide a key competitive advantage over mask-programmable, one-time programmable, volatile SRAM reprogrammable, and Flash reprogrammable solutions.
- Radiation-hard applications are a natural fit for PCM due to the atomic structural nature of memory data storage. Unlike charge-storage based memory technologies, PCM stores the phase of a material, which is effectively immune to radiation. Thus, PCM is an ideal candidate for military, space, and other radiation sensitive applications.