eMemory and UMC Bring New ReRAM Intellectual Property to Market
Hsinchu, Taiwan (November 4, 2021) –eMemory, the world’s leading provider of intellectual property for non-volatile memory, and United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) (“UMC”), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that eMemory’s Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) IP has been qualified on UMC’s 40nm process.
This achievement makes eMemory one of the world’s first companies to provide this emerging memory IP and enables UMC to offer more comprehensive solutions for MCU, PMIC, and AIoT markets. eMemory now offers ReRAM together with existing IP product lines of traditional non-volatile memory technologies.
Our ReRAM is targeted for 40nm and below to provide a much-needed embedded memory option for more advanced process nodes,” said C.Y. Lin, CTO and GM of MTP Business Group at eMemory. “eMemory has offered this IP to provide chip designers a non-volatile memory that easily merges into the process at a chip foundry.”
The development of the ReRAM IP on UMC’s 40nm 1.1V/2.5V ultra low-power (ULP) process and the plan to extend the IP’s availability to our 22nm ULP process demonstrates commitment from both companies to this new memory product,” said T.H. Lin, director of the IP Development and Design Support division at UMC. “We expect ReRAM will address an important new market, and our collaboration with eMemory will help us further diversify our specialty technology portfolio.”
ReRAM is an emerging non-volatile memory (NVM) technology with a number of advantages such as simple structure, easy fabrication in a chip foundry, compatibility with the CMOS process as well as operation at high speed with low power consumption. The eMemory ReRAM is designed for code storage in microcontrollers and power-management ICs, lookup tables in low-power or portable IoT devices, and still more applications for computing-in-memory and artificial intelligence. eMemory expects ReRAM to take the place of embedded flash at 40nm and finer process technologies. It is also a good embedded NVM solution with specialty process technologies such as Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) and high voltage.
eMemory offers 4Mb ReRAM IP with one 16Kb information block, in-chip repair and an error-detection-correction function for qualification. The IP supports an operating temperature of 125°C for consumer and industrial application.
ReRAM provides a number of advantages over split-gate flash memory. The ReRAM is implemented with a low-temperature process in the backend flow, which needs nearly no thermal budget compared with split-gate flash and merges more easily into foundry processes. eMemory and UMC licensed the basic ReRAM technology from Panasonic Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd.
