4DS - Anything but Charting, page-24308

mjshackl,

I'm still thinking about your statement sismissing vertical stacking (1 horizontal lectrode layer and 1 vertical electrode column that one single mask for many layers of ReRam Cells) for 4DS memory.

I didn't understand your point because vertical stacking is now a standard for 3D NAND and a ReRam cell seemed easier to produce than a NAND cell.







From recent reading, it seems that punching a clean hole in many layers of electrodes and insulators is a process that can only be done with an EUV device.
We know that imec has only one of the most recent EUV equipement from ASML.

So, I think you are right : multiple layers of 4DS cells with vertical electrodes will not be processed at imec.

But in that case, we are left with a cross point architecture (1 transistor 1 resistor) wich imply a mask for each layer of Reram cells.

This solution was retained by intel for Optane (from memory, they used something different than a transistor to select the individual cells, but it is the same principle) .
This has been said many years ago, to be a very costly process that would never reach mass production.

So, my first question is :
- What are the other advantages of a 4DS stand alone memory if it is as costly as Optane to produce ?
Toshiba dismissed the Optane way years ago for this reason : too much masks and then too costly to produce.

My second question is :
- Are there other ways than vertical stacking to reduce costs ?
for example, Crossbar announced two or treee years ago than they made a 1 terabyte memory on 1 chip using a different way of reducing the number of masks : puting a transistor under multiple layers of Crossbar cells. But this doesn't seem to have to have convinced the industry..

An my third question is :
- Are there some other uses of 4DS cell that could be needed, considering the most recent trends in the semiconductor industry.
For example, AI and in-memory computing ...



To make it shorter.

DRAM is now at less than 1 $ per Gbt.

- With the limited informations avaible, what could be a fair assesment of 4DS technology' use and value in this ecosystem ?

I can't identified any if the cell can't be mass produced.
But there must be a critical value somewhere otherwise we won't be seeing what we are seeing.

May be an addition of chararacteristics that makes it unique ?