May 26, 2006 – Nantero Inc., Phoenix, AZ, and ON Semiconductor will pick up where Nantero and LSI Logic left off with work to integrate carbon nanotubes into CMOS fabrication. ON Semi acquired LSI Logic’s facility in Gresham, OR, earlier this year, where the technology was being developed.

“The technological accomplishments already achieved by Nantero in the Gresham facility are impressive, and we expect to work together to realize additional milestones in the integration of carbon nanotubes in CMOS processes,” stated Bill George, SVP of operations for ON Semiconductor.

Nantero recently revealed it has successfully demonstrated scalability of its nonvolatile random access memory (NRAM) technology, with fabrication and testing of a 22nm NRAM memory switch. The NRAM switches are fabricated using a proprietary fabric webbing made of masses of tangled carbon nanotubes, and a ribbon of the fabric as a mechanical switch between electrodes-much like the mechanical relays in the first computers. An array pattern of ribbons of nanotube webbing can thus be formed across the chip, suspended over interconnect trenches. Sending a charge through the ribbon makes it sag down into the trenches to contact the electrodes; when the power is removed, Van der Waals Forces maintain the ribbon in its flexed state.

The device was created at its Woburn, MA, labs, using electron-beam lithography (as no production-scale 22nm lithography yet exists), and tested by writing and reading data using 3nsec cycle times. The company believes the process will scale down to future generations, even below the 5nm technology node.