Jan. 3, 2006 — Ovonyx Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. of Seoul, South Korea, announced that they have entered into a long-term license agreement regarding Ovonyx’s thin-film semiconductor memory technology known as Ovonic Universal Memory.
Ovonyx memory technology uses a reversible phase-change memory process that has been previously commercialized in rewritable CD and DVD optical memory disks. The technology could be used in applications such as Flash and DRAM memory replacements, as well as in embedded applications in product areas like microcontrollers and reconfigurable MOS logic.
Byung-Il Ryu, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor R&D center, said in a prepared statement that the agreement would open doors to further development and research on phase-change technology as a solution for next generation memory designs and applications.