The future prospects of flash memory are bright, but soon things might change if industry specialists don’t think of better options.
Till date NAND Flash or the type of memory you all get in digital cameras and MP3 players has already shown its potential. They have made all 1-inch HDDs obsolete. Manufacturers are now looking forward to take over all 1.8-inch drives and possibly the larger 2.5-inch drives that are common in laptops.
The next big thing here will be to take the video market over. SanDisk believes that users should be able to see flash memory in video camera phones and video cameras by the end of next year.
In another five to seven years we should be able to have computers that run on flash memory rather than DRAM chips like today. Another advantage for NAND is that the memory is not expensive and the cost per bit of NAND is far less than DRAM chips. IBM and some others are already working on Solid State Servers that make use of NAND.
Can NAND satisfy all memory needs?
The biggest problem for companies like SanDisk is that they will not be able to improve NAND flash after a certain limit and that limit is not too far away. SanDisk believes that NAND will definitely slow down as it is difficult to compress the electronics involved after a certain limit. The company has also stated that at most they have three to four generations of NAND to be seen and after that they may need a different technology.
The Tunnel Oxide layer inside a NAND cannot be compressed beyond 8-0 angstroms and in other chips this layer can be shrunk to 12 angstroms.
Data Corruption:
Flash memory records data by storing electrons in cells. Manufacturers cannot afford to lose more than 30 electrons at 32 nanometers. Once that happens data in the memory will be corrupted and the memory will be damaged. The figures are even more discouraging if we talk about processes done at 20-nanometer, which will start coming out in a few years.
Alternatives:
SanDisk does not want to leave any stone unturned. They have stated that the company will try to make 3D arrays in which transistors will be stacked. This is like constructing a skyscraper when the land gets expensive. They have already bought Matrix Semiconductor, which invented a 3D memory chip. These chips are not rewriteable, which means you cannot erase data and put new stuff into it. Solving this problem will make SanDisk the market leader in Flash Memory chips.
Another alternative is to enable the chips to store more data in each cell. Currently the densest chip stores two memory bits in each cell, if researchers are able to improve that figure to three bits per cell then things can be made better. Some other manufacturers are developing phase change memory or mechanical actuators.
Cost Issue:
Cost is another issue that will sooner or later hit the flash market hard. Fabs cost about $5 billion, and nearly 50% of the world’s NAND factory capacity will have to be replaced in the next two years. This change will require NAND makers to put lots of money into construction. These new technologies will also reduce the cost of a NAND chip, this can also sway many manufacturers from investing billions of dollars for plants whose products will sell for cents.
Via: CNET
