SLC、MLC、TLC、QLC、PLC...... The development of NAND flash memory should be more familiar to everyone, they represent the bit data that each cell can store, the density is getting higher and higher, the capacity is getting larger and larger, of course, the reliability, the life is getting lower and lower.
SLC 1 bit (1bpc) per unit requires 2 levels; MLC 2 bits per unit requires 4 levels, increasing capacity by 100%; TLC 3 bits per unit requires 8 levels, and capacity increases by 33%...
By analogy, 5 bits per unit for commercially available PLCs require 32 levels and a capacity of only 5 times that of an SLC.
Now, Japanese startup Floadia has announced that it has developed a new 7-bit (7bpc) flash memory per unit, which requires up to 128 levels of power according to the law, and the capacity is equivalent to 10 times that of SLC.
Floadia, of course, did not continue the old way of NAND flash memory, but developed a new non-volatile SONOS unit, based on the silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) layout, using a distributed charge capture structure, with a layer of silicon nitride film in the middle, which can firmly capture the charge, thereby maintaining data stability for a long time, and the voltage programming erase cycle is very simple.
Among them, the oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) layer uses silicon dioxide (SiO2) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) materials, the latter of which is very difficult to manufacture.
Officially, under the very low voltage offset, this flash memory can maintain more than 100,000 programming erase cycles, even at a high temperature of 150 ° C, it can continue to save data for up to 10 years, and now the mainstream flash memory can last 100 seconds is not bad.
Of course, don't get too excited, Floadia's target market for new flash memory (at least for now) is mainly the embedded market, such as is working with Toshiba to use the 40nm process for manufacturing, for a variety of microcontrollers.
Founded in April 2011 by seven engineers from Renesas Electronics in Japan, Floadia has gone through three rounds of funding, including 1.2 billion yen (67 million yuan) in Series C.