November 5, 2012 – imec and Nantero will be collaborating on a joint development program focused on the carbon-nanotube-based memory (NRAM) developed by Nantero and its application in high-density next-generation sub-20nm memories. NRAM arrays will be manufactured, tested and characterized in imec’s advanced nanoelectronics facilities.

Carbon nanotube memory is based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), cylindrical carbon molecules about a nanometer across and up to a millimeter long, which exhibit high strength, unique electrical properties and efficient heat conduction, making them a promising material for future memories.

"After review of the progress to date by Nantero and its manufacturing partners, we decided that this CNT-based non-volatile memory has multiple very attractive characteristics for next-generation highly scaled memory," said Luc Van den hove, CEO of imec.

Nantero has already fabricated high-yielding 4Mb arrays of NRAM in CMOS production environments.

"Together, Nantero and imec can develop and demonstrate this form of memory for future applications below 20nm such as terabit-scale memory arrays and ultra-fast gigabit-scale nonvolatile cache memories," commented Jo de Boeck, CTO of imec. "NRAM holds clear promise in aggressively scaled non-volatile memory applications and, if we can demonstrate the suitable endurance and speed specifications, NRAM could even provide an alternative for DRAM that is facing scaling limitations beyond 18nm."