Ferroelectric capacitors (FeCAPs) are an energy-efficient alternative to resistive types of memories for analog compute-in-memory (CiM) applications.
However, since conventional read operations for FeCAPs are destructive, the read endurance is limited by the write endurance, which is insufficient for CiM.
Imec and the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated a non-destructive read operation for the first time, enabling fully decoupled read and write endurance.
They achieved a non-destructive read endurance of >1011 and a capacitive memory window of 8.7 (at 0V) – the largest values reported for FeCAPs. The results were presented at 2023 IEDM.
This article was published in EDN.
Jan Van Houdt received a Ph.D. from the KU Leuven. During his PhD work, he invented the HIMOS™ Flash memory, which he transferred to several industrial production lines. In 1999, he became responsible for Flash memory at imec and, as such, was the driving force behind the expansion of imec’s Industrial Affiliation Program on Memory Technology. Jan has published over 300 papers in international journals and accumulated over 250 conference contributions (incl. ~50 invitations and five best paper awards). He has filed about 100 patents and served on the program and organizing committees of 10 major semiconductor conferences. In 2014, he received the title of IEEE Fellow for his contributions to Flash memory devices. In the same year, he started the Ferroelectrics program at imec and became a guest lecturer at the KU Leuven, teaching CMOS and memory technology. Today, he is a Program Director at imec, imec Fellow, and Professor at the Physics and Astronomy Department of the KU Leuven.
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Published on:
18 December 2023
