COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.-- Ramtron International Corp. here and Fujitsu Ltd. in Japan today announced development of an "embeddable" 0.35-micron ferroelectric RAM manufacturing process. The new 3-volt process technology is now being installed at Fujitsu's production facility in Iwate, Japan.
The two companies said they spent two years jointly developing the multi-level metal FRAM process, which is expected to be production ready during the second half of 2001. The technology will be used to reduce the cost of standard FRAM memories as well as embed the nonvolatile memory in microcontrollers, ASICs, and other ICs, said Ramtron and Fujitsu.
The 0.35-micron technology "is expected to open opportunities for FRAM in the marketplace due to a good balance between cost and performance," said Tatsuya Yamazaki, director of FRAM development at Fujitsu.
The new process technology is "rapidly closing in on cost parity with EEPROM technology," added Tom Davenport, technology group vice president at Ramtron in Colorado Springs. As a result, the new ferroelectric memory technology is poised to "drive mainstream production volumes and increase FRAM market share," Davenport added.
Fujitsu and Ramtron first began working together on FRAM technology in 1996. The companies have produced prototype devices of 1-megabit FRAM memories and a microcontroller with 64 kilobits of embedded FRAM. Fujitsu is currently using a 0.5-micron process to produce high-volume FRAM devices in Iwate.
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