A 3D stackable Carbon Nanotube-based nonvolatile memory (NRAM)

A 4 Mbit nonvolatile memory with a Carbon Nanotube (CNT) storage element has been manufactured in a 0.25 μm CMOS process at a production fab. The CNT storage element is integrated in BEOL, requires minimal additional processing steps, and only a single additional mask. The memory can be RESET in 50 nanoseconds and SET in 500 nanoseconds. Demonstrated read access time of the development vehicle is 50 nanoseconds. Write endurance is in excess of 10,000 cycles, and robust data retention has been demonstrated. The CNT storage element is scalable to <; 5 nm, and voltage and current consumption during write operations are low. As intrinsic NRAM SET & RESET times are <; 1 nanosecond, improvements in performance are anticipated.