Mechanically Operated Random Access Memory (MORAM) Based on an Electrostatic Microswitch for Nonvolatile Memory Applications

Author

Jang, Weon Wi ; Lee, Jeong Oen ; Yang, Hyun-Ho ; Yoon, Jun-Bo

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Daejeon

Volume

55

Issue

10

fYear

2008

Firstpage

2785

Lastpage

2789

Abstract

We proposed and demonstrated a mechanically operated random access memory (MORAM) based on an electrostatically actuated metallic microswitch for nonvolatile memory applications. The metallic microswitch-based MORAM successfully showed program and erase operations, wherein the microswitch had an essentially zero off current, an abrupt switching with less than 1 mV/dec, and an on/off current ratio over 10⁷, and its stored charge was investigated with the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitor. Moreover, first reported were an endurance of up to 10⁵ cycles in air ambient and a retention time of more than 10⁴ s in vacuum ambient.

Keywords

MOS capacitors; microswitches; random-access storage; MOS capacitor; air ambient; electrostatic microswitch; mechanically operated random access memory; metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitor; nonvolatile memory applications; vacuum ambient; DRAM chips; Electrostatics; Fabrication; Leakage current; Microelectromechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Microswitches; Nanoelectromechanical systems; Nonvolatile memory; Random access memory; Abrupt switching; dynamic random access memory (DRAM); electrostatic microswitch; endurance; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS); nonvolatile memory; retention;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2008.2003052

Filename

4631418