Table 1. Comparison of room temperature non-volatile memory technologies.
| Flash-NAND | FeRAM | MRAM | STT-RAM | SME-RAM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storage capacity | >1 Gb | >10 Mb | 16 Mb* | 1 Gb† | >>1 Gb |
| Write time | 1 ms | 10 ns | 20 ns | 3–10 ns | <10 ns |
| Read time | 50 ns | 45 ns | 10 ns | 10 ns | 10 ns |
| Write energy (pJ per bit) |
>0.01 |
0.03 |
70 |
0.1 |
1.6×10−4 |
The proposed memory device prototype is denoted as the strain-mediated magnetoelectric random access memory (SME-RAM), where the estimated storage capacity, write time and write energy are summarized below. The read time of the present SME-RAM is assumed to be the same as conventional MRAM and STT-RAM devices, due to their similar magnetoresistive readout processes. FeRAM indicates the ferroelectric random access memory. Performance parameters of Flash-NAND, FeRAM, MRAM and STT-RAM are taken from commercial products unless stated otherwise. Data are adopted from refs 1, 23, 25, 41, 45, 46.
*Can be further scaled down and would possibly reach 64 MB or 128 MB (ref. 1).
†The 1-Gb STT-RAM has been demonstrated in research laboratories and could be industrialized in the near future (ref. 46).