Technology scaling impact on NOR and NAND flash memories and their applications

NOR and NAND flash memories have scaled over 9 generations and 20 years since their 1986 product introductions. This scaling of both memory types in conjunction with MLC technology have enabled the cellular phone market and digital still camera market with high density code and removable data storage. This paper will discuss how flash technology scaling continues to enable new solutions for both the mobile communication and PC computing platforms. A new DDR NOR flash interface will enable high performance (133MHz and higher) code execution in mobile applications such as 3G/UMTS mobile phones. Non-volatile memory (NVM) disk caches are emerging as key and viable subsystem for the PC computing and other applications. The addition of NAND flash into the PC memory hierarchy delivers better performance, improved power savings and a richer user experience. Despite the challenges imposed by memory technology scaling, flash memory solutions will evolve to an ever changing variety of application needs with lower power, ever diversified and more efficient solutions