FeRAM: Next Generation Challenges and Future Directions

Summary form only given: It has already been a couple of decades since FeRAM emerged as a nonvolatile memory with a business reality. The present status is however far away from the blue prints that we figured out in the past. The worldwide market size is still below billion dollars and there are only a few manufacturers actually playing in this field. But very recently, there are some encouraging signs of growth in specific applications such as electronic commerce cards and chips. FeRAM is now being accepted in such applications because of the unique competences that none of other memories have. Although the memory size is still much smaller, FeRAM works at extremely low power and high speed with a high security level. In addition, there is a potential need for a fast and low-power nonvolatile memory that can be integrated in the leading-edge system-on-a-chip (SoC) with the fewest additional mask layers. Here I would like to reconsider what is the difference between FeRAM and the others and how we can maximize the potential performances of FeRAM under the current technology available. In doing this, I believe that we can take a further step to increase business opportunities by changing the paradigm of FeRAM engineering strategy. From such considerations, I like to deduce the keys responsible for FeRAM transition from a niche to mainstream product.