As eFlash has faced scalability challenges due to a charge storage-based operation, eMRAM has been the most promising successor since its resistance-based operation allows strong scalability while also possessing outstanding technical characteristics of memory semiconductors such as nonvolatility, random access, and strong endurance. With today’s announcement, Samsung has proved its capability to overcome technical hurdles and demonstrated the possibility for further scalability of embedded memory technology to 28nm process node and beyond.

Samsung’s 28FDS-based eMRAM solution offers unprecedented power and speed advantages with lower cost. Since eMRAM does not require an erase cycle before writing data, its writing speed is approximately a thousand times faster than eFlash. Also, eMRAM uses lower voltages than eFlash, and does not consume electric power when in power-off mode, resulting in great power efficiency.

Furthermore, since an eMRAM module can easily be inserted in the back-end of the process by adding the least number of layers, it has less dependence on the front-end of the process for easy integration with existing logic technologies, such as bulk, fin, and FD-SOI transistor. With this plug-in module concept, customers can enjoy the benefit of reutilizing existing design infrastructure even with this added new technology, eMRAM, and saving costs at the same time.

By combining with 28FD-SOI for better transistor control and minimizing leakage current through body-bias control, Samsung’s eMRAM solution will provide differentiated benefits for a variety of applications including micro controller unit (MCU), internet of things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI).

“We are very proud of this achievement in offering right embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) technology after overcoming complicated challenges of new materials.” said Ryan Lee, vice president of foundry marketing at Samsung Electronics. “By integrating eMRAM with existing proven logic technologies, Samsung Foundry continues to expand its eNVM process portfolio to provide distinct competitive advantages and excellent manufacturability to meet customers and market requirement.”

A ceremony to celebrate this first shipment of eMRAM product will be held on March 6 at Samsung’s Giheung campus, Korea. Samsung plans to expand its options for high-density eNVM solutions, including a tape-out of 1Gb eMRAM test chip within this year.

Samsung Electronics rewrote the book on digital data storage with the introduction of its next chapter: V-NAND technology. As outlined in the video above, this revolutionary new paradigm in memory semiconductors doubles processing speeds and halves power consumption in solid-state drives (SSDs) — currently used in a wide range of applications, from client PCs to enterprise servers.

Prior to V-NAND technology’s introduction, SSD memory had traditionally been increased by cramming more cells into a limited 2D plane. Because placing the cells too closely together can ultimately compromise reliability, this new approach instead stacks them three-dimensionally. To illustrate, imagine a building, where instead of cramming more rooms into the fixed space of a single floor, you increase capacity by building new levels. This construction alleviates issues associated with shrinking NAND lithography and makes it possible for enterprises to adopt SSDs with faster response rates and larger capacities.

With the layered innovation, Samsung has added new depth to memory semiconductor technology. This will not only accelerate developments in cloud computing, real-time analysis and big data networks, but also advance the era of IoT, wherein immense amounts of data will need to be processed and transferred faster than ever before.