KAUSTAV ROY (2009B5A4362H)

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MEMORY

VOLATILE

NONVOLATILE

SRAM DRAM T-RAM Z-RAM TTRAM

Upcoming

ROM (PROM, EPROM, EEPROM) NVRAM FeRAM MRAM PRAM CBRAM SONOS NRAM etc.
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NON-VOLATILE RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (NVRAM) is the general term used to describe any type of random access memory which does not lose its information when power is tuned off. It is a small 24 pin DIP( Dual Inline Package) integrated circuit chip and is thus able to obtain the power needed to keep it running from the CMOS battery installed in the motherboard. An example of the best known NVRAM memory used today is flash memory. FLASH MEMORY: It is a kind of NVRAM memory that can be electrically erased or reprogrammed. It finds its use primarily in USB flash drives, memory cards, solid state devices etc. for general storage and transfer of data between computers and other digital products.
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Earlier computer systems used memory of which some were non-volatile for example the magnetic core memory, which stored data in the polarity of small magnets. Since the magnets held their state even with the power removed, magnetic core memory was also non-volatile.

Earlier NonVolatile memories

Drum memory

Magnetic Core Memory

Twisted Memory

Bubble Memory

Plated Wire Memory

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The non-volatile memory is typically a semiconductor memory comprising of thousands of individual transistors configured on a substrate to form a matrix of rows and columns of memory cells. In NVRAM cells, the cells conductive state is determined by the charge state of the cells floating gate. The floating gate is an electrically isolated gate of a field effect transistor(FET) stacked in a two device NAND like structure. Charge is forced onto or removed from the floating gate through a thin insulator layer isolates that gate electrically from other adjoining conductive layers. Charge trapping centres and associated potential wells are created by forming nano-particles of metals and semiconductor in a large band gap insulating matrix.

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 NVRAM chips work like normal static RAM  NVRAM provide superior performance as compared to other Non- Volatile Memory devices  NVRAM serve applications that require high-speed read/write operation with non-volatile memories such as parallel processing controllers for LANs and antilock braking systems.  NVRAM chips dont require much power and backup can be guaranteed up to ten years.

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A perovskite-type structure (ABO3) is used as Ferroelectric material for making NVRAM, typically speaking PZT (Pb {ZrTi}O3). By applying or removing the external electric field the internal atom Zr/Ti can be displaced up or down into multiple stable state positions, which creates a permanent electrical polarization of the material, resulting the nonvolatile property of the material. As a result the power consumption is very low for the data storage. Lead Zirconate Pb (Zrx,Ti1-x)O3 ( PZT) and strontium bismuth tentate SrBiTa2O9 are the most promising candidates for the future NVRAMs.

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Ferroelectrics with layered Aurivillius structure: Strontium bismuth tantalate (SrBi2Ta2O9, SBT) crystallizes in the so-called layered Aurivillius structure and the ferroelectricity of this material was discovered at early 1960s. This material can be used for producing non-volatile ferroelectric memories for its excellent polarization fatigue behaviour.

PZT crystal structure PbTiO3 tetrahedral symmetry Elementary cell of (Ba, Sr) TiO3
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A ferroelectric material has a nonlinear relationship between the applied electric field and the apparent stored charge. Specifically, the ferroelectric characteristic has the form of a hysteresis loop, which is very similar in shape to the hysteresis loop of ferromagnetic materials. The dielectric constant of a ferroelectric is typically much higher than that of a linear dielectric because of the effects of semipermanent electric dipoles formed in the crystal structure of the ferroelectric material. When an external electric field is applied across a dielectric, the dipoles tend to align themselves with the field direction, produced by small shifts in the positions of atoms and shifts in the distributions of electronic charge in the crystal structure. After the charge is removed, the dipoles retain their polarization state. Typically binary "0"s and "1"s are stored as one of two possible electric polarizations in each data storage cell.

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Polarization in a Crystal NVRAM uses a ferroelectric capacitor composed of a crystal made up of lead and oxygen atoms plus zirconium or titanium; these crystals have two stable states. When an electric field is applied, the Zr/Ti (zirconium or titanium) atoms in the PZT change polarity, thereby producing a binary switch. The read circuit detects the polarity of the atom as a difference in voltage, which determines the 0 or 1.

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Lead Zirconate Titanate (Pb [ZrxTi1-x]O3 0<x<1) is a ceramic perovskite material that shows marked piezoelectric effect. PZT-based compounds are composed of the chemical elements lead and zirconium and the chemical compound titanate which are combined under extremely high temperatures. A mechanical filter is then used to filter out the particulates. PZT-based compounds are used in the manufacturing of ultrasound transducers, in the manufacturing of ceramic capacitors, STM/AFM actuators (tubes), and Non Volatile RAMs. Being piezoelectric, it develops a voltage (or potential difference) across two of its faces when compressed (useful for sensor applications), or physically changes shape when an external electric field is applied (useful for actuator applications). Being pyroelectric, this material develops a voltage difference across two of its faces when it experiences a temperature change. As a result, it can be used as a sensor for detecting heat. It is also ferroelectric, which means it has a spontaneous electric polarization (electric dipole) which can be reversed in the presence of an electric field.
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The material features an extremely large dielectric constant at the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) near x = 0.52. These properties make PZT-based compounds one of the most prominent and useful electro ceramics. Commercially, it is usually not used in its pure form, rather it is doped with either acceptor dopants, which create oxygen (anion) vacancies, or donor dopants, which create metal (cation) vacancies and facilitate domain wall motion in the material. In general, acceptor doping creates hard PZT while donor doping creates soft PZT. Hard and soft PZT's generally differ in their piezoelectric constants. Piezoelectric constants are proportional to the polarization or to the electrical field generated per unit of mechanical stress, or alternatively is the mechanical strain produced by per unit of electric field applied. In general, soft PZT has a higher piezoelectric constant, but larger losses in the material due to internal friction. In hard PZT, domain wall motion is pinned by the impurities thereby lowering the losses in the material, but at the expense of a reduced piezoelectric constant.
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What happens : Ferroelectric SrBi2Ta2O9/SrBi2Nb2O9 (SBT/SBN) multilayer thin films with various stacking periodicity are deposited on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique. The X-ray diffraction patterns indicated that the perovskite phase is fully formed with polycrystalline structure in all the films. The Raman spectra showed the frequency of the OTaO stretching mode for multilayer and single layer SrBi2(Ta0.5Nb0.5)2O9 (SBNT) samples as 827829 cm1, which is in between the stretching mode frequency in SBT (813 cm1) and SBN (834 cm1) thin films. The dielectric constant was increased from 300 (SBT) to 373 at 100 kHz in the double layer SBT/SBN sample with thickness of each layer being 200 nm. The remnant polarization (2Pr) for this film was obtained 41.7 C/cm2, which is much higher, compared to pure SBT film (19.2 C/cm2). The coercive field of this double layer film (67 kV/cm) was found to be lower than SBN film (98 kV/cm).

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In a Ferroelectric Ram a ferroelectric film is used as capacitor to hold the data as it has the characteristic of remnant polarization which is reversed as by applying the electric field giving rise to the P-E hysteresis loop. In order to reduce the operational voltages the capacitors of thickness of the order of sub micron can be prepared by using the thin film technology. FeRAM uses the P-E characteristic to store the data in a non-volatile state and allows the data to be rewritten fast and frequently. In ferroelectric capacitor, the dielectric layer is replaced with a thin ferroelectric flux, typically made of lead Zirconate titanate.

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It uses the voltage pulses to read and write the digital information. If the electrical field of the applied pulse is in the same direction as that of remnant polarization, there will be no switching. The dielectric response of the ferroelectric material causes the change of polarization and is due to the dielectric response. If the initial polarization is in opposite state due to the field, the polarization reverses causes an increased switching polarization change Ps. The different states of remnant polarization (+Pr and -Pr) cause the different transient current behavior of the ferroelectric capacitor to an applied voltage pulse. By integrating the current, switched and the non-switched charge can be determined. The difference in charge enables to distinguish between the two logic states.

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Three different failure mechanisms are observed effecting the operation of the NVRAMs For the realization of the commercially available NVRAMs, some technical issues have to be addressed. Under some conditions the ferroelectric materials may degrade, causing the unreliability.

CHALLENGES

Polarization Fatigue

Imprint

Retention Loss

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Fatigue is the decrease of polarization charge after writing and reading. Due to the continuous cycling the positive and the negative saturation in the hysteresis loop, which shows the continuous read and write operation of the same cell, the p-v hysteresis loop becomes flatter and the remnant polarization is decreased. The difference between the switching and the non-switching charge becomes smaller causing the failure of the device if this difference is too small to be detected by the sense amplifier. The decrease of remnant polarization depends upon the material properties of the ferroelectric capacitor, pulse amplitude and width as well. Fatigue results are strongly affected by the degree of switching caused by the fatigue excitation signal. For complete switching the fatigue behavior is independent of the fatigue frequency and only the number of cycles is decisive for the decrease in polarization

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Retention loss is the decrease of polarization after long term storage. As the ferroelectric cannot ideally retain the remnant polarization because of depoling and back switching similar to fatigue the difference between switching and non-switching charge becomes smaller. The retention loss is determined by measuring the retained charge, e.g. by means of a negative read pulse, after a certain period of time when the state was stored by a positive wrote pulse

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Imprint is the tendency of one polarization state to become more stable than the other state, which accompanies the loss of polarization. Imprint failure is the crucial degradation factor which is caused by maintaining a remnant polarization for a long time which causes the shift of ferroelectric hysteresis loop with respect to the applied voltage. Due to imprint, the remnant polarization decays as a function of storage time. A shift of ferroelectric hysteresis loop on the voltage axis is observed (memory device becomes non-switchable) and on the other hand it leads to a loss of remnant polarization(due to which the sense amplifier is unable to distinguish between two different polarization states) Interface screening mechanism proposed that imprint is due strong electric field at the interface between the thin film and the electrode this field is due to the thin surface layer in which the spontaneous polarization is reduced or even absent.

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We have seen the varied advantages and uses of Non Volatile Random Access memory in making memory devices. NVRAMs are considered to be one of the most innovative solutions offered to the memory problem yet discovered. What is planned to do is synthesizing layered ferroelectric materials which can be used for making NVRAMs, capacitors, and other device applications.

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Ferroelectric RAM( FeRAM or FRAM) uses a ferroelectric layer to achieve non-volatility. In spite of its name Ferroelectric RAM doesn't contain iron. Advantages: i. Low Power Usage ii. Faster write performance iii. Greater maximum number of write-erase cycles( exceeding 1016 for 3.3 V device) Disadvantages: i. Higher Cost ii. Lower storage densities

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1. Dragan Damjanovic, The Science Of Hysteresis 2. Muhammad Muneeb, Non- Volatile Random Access Memory Technology. 3. Wikipedia.com 4. Ferroelectric and related Materials, Laboratory of Terahertz Spectroscopy, Prague 5. Research Paper on Double-layered Aurivillius Ferroelectrics with magnetic moments, A.b.Missyul, I.A.Zvereva, T.T.M.Palstra, A.I.Kurbakov 6. Ferroelectric Random Access Memory, SSUET, Karachi 7. Photo credits: google images

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