Technologies are universal, both by nature and by name, mostly in abbreviated form. Throw out "cell phone,” "computer" or "television" anywhere and chances are you will not be alienated. But Cone SONOS flash memory For this rare technology, we are at once baffled by its idiosyncratic term. Korean research team from Seoul National University (SNU) invented 'NOR Flash Memory' that processes data faster by ten times for the first in the world.
On the 20th, the research team led by Professor Park Byung-gook publicly announced that they originated ‘Cone-shaped NOR Flash memory’ that has better degree of integration, capacity, and efficiency of data records prior to their initial NOR flash memory. Supported by Tera-level Nanodevices, SNU research team has made it all the more possible for the next-generation digital devices to respond faster, since NOR flash memory can be housed into cell phones, smart phones, TVs, and many more.
Hence, Professor Park and his team’s cone-shaped NOR flash memory break the norm of the original, flat-shaped flash memory. They succeeded in developing renewed flash memory that has relevant speed and data storage that of NAND.
NAND Flashes are mainly adopted into digital cameras and MP3 players since their internal circuit is much simpler than NOR, which allows higher concentration and capacity. Conversely, NOR has been commonly used in cell phones for they are fast in processing memory storage. NOR and NAND is divided by their circuit type and shape; unlike DRAM, they are able to continue storing information even after the power is turned off.
Nonetheless, the former flat-shaped NOR was often criticized for its inefficiency of low accumulation and low capacity. Flat-shaped NOR Flash memories, more specifically, run slow when recording data information and because there are frequent contact with metal within the wiring structure, it creates a narrow space that in turn leads to inefficient integration. Thus, such minor problems of limited performance and clustering seem to have formed a bubble and expect to create bigger issue within five years ahead. Especially, NOR flash memories’ lack of high capacity have risen to the surface since smart phones are booming in the cell phone market.
SNU research team significantly improved information record and deleting rate by extending the memory channel to a cone-shaped and stretching the travel distance of electrons. And by cutting the NOR's area by one fifth, they achieved in boosting its accumulation rate to the level and speed of NAND. All in all, SNU research team is applauded for the possibility of entering the consumer's market, selling NOR flash memory the size of 32GB.
The secret recipe for improving integration is arranging partial electronic circuit vertically where it originally was set horizontally. This idea is similar to securing more space by putting in matchsticks in the box vertically rather than laying them horizontally. In such way, movements of electrons became faster and that led to more rapid reaction rate by 10 times than before. Hence, storing capacity of numbers has enlarged by six times and number search and access rates are far quicker than current memory systems.
If this recently developed NOR Flash memory gets commercialized, it can be foreseen that Korean companies will lead the NOR Flash market whereas foreign firms like Intel and Numonyx are currently dominating the market. The market for NOR Flash memory is generally huge at $6 billion dollars but domestic companies like Samsung Electronics occupy only a meager portion of the demand. “Once we implement this technology, we can overcome low storing capacity of 1G and also produce more advanced performance than our prior NOR flash, ultimately creating high-concentration NOR Flash memory” said Professor Park.
Regarding this original technology, its research result has already been uploaded on the recent IEEE Electron Device Letters and is in the process of obtaining one patent in Korea as well as in the U.S.
