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Product category: Memory Devices and Modules
News Release from: NEC Electronics (Europe) | Subject: UX8GD and UX8LD
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 20 November 2007

Memory technologies shrink SoC designs

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New technologies featured in NEC Electronics' 40nm eDRAM will enable customers to more easily build electronic digital consumer products.

NEC Electronics has introduced two new technologies for the manufacture of 40nm SoC devices with embedded dynamic random access memory (eDRAM) The UX8GD eDRAM technology boasts clock speeds up to 800MHz and low operating power, making it optimal for use in consumer electronics products such as digital video cameras and game consoles

The UX8LD eDRAM technology features low leakage-current levels that reduce power consumption by as much two-thirds compared with equivalent SRAM, making it ideal for use in mobile handsets and other portable devices that require low standby power.

The UX8GD and UX8LD technologies combine leading-edge 40 nm CMOS process technology with NEC Electronics' unique eDRAM process technology, and are available in memory configurations up to 256Mbit.

Cell size is 0.06um2, 50% smaller than the company's previous 55nm UX7LSeD eDRAM.

This translates to a 50% reduction in overall chip size, which contributes to lower bill-of-materials costs.

The new 40nm technologies also leverage innovative high-dielectric (high-k) materials - such as hafnium gate dielectrics, nickel-silicide gate electrodes and zirconium-oxide DRAM capacitors - that have been proven in NEC Electronics' 55nm UX7LSeD technology.

These innovations lower the concentration of impurities and parasitic resistance in the channels, resulting in benefits such as lower leakage current between the drain and source, longer-term data storage, fewer variations in transistor performance and greater performance of both logic and memory.

As consumers demand smaller form factors and longer operating times in mobile applications and other electronic products, semiconductor companies must deliver devices with higher performance, smaller footprints, lower power consumption, and lower costs.

To meet these requirements, the development and implementation of advanced process technologies is vital.

The advantages of the new technologies featured in NEC Electronics' 40nm eDRAM will enable customers to more easily build electronic digital consumer products such as digital video cameras, game consoles, and mobile phones with lower power consumption and smaller and slimmer form factors.

NEC Electronics began shipment of 55nm eDRAM samples in October 2007 and plans to ramp to volume production by the end of this fiscal year.

Volume production of 40nm devices is scheduled to begin by the end of the next fiscal year at NEC Electronics' 300mm wafer line at manufacturing subsidiary NEC Yamagata.

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