ARM has announced the creation of Cerfe Labs, a company that is developing the concept of CeRAM , a non-volatile memory that promises to offer features not found in any other current memory technology.
These new non-volatile memories, capable of storing data in the absence of power , are based on CeRAM (Correlated-Electron RAM) and FeFET (ferroelectric transistor) materials.
ARM will transfer the employees already involved in this project to Cerfe Labs, and Cerfe Labs will continue the agreement with Symetrix Corporation, a company headed by Professor Carlos Paz de Araújo of the University of Colorado, the true inventor of CeRAM. ARM will also transfer all intellectual property related to CeRAM (more than 150 patent families) to Cerfe Labs.
Cerfe Labs organization
According to a note, Cerfe Labs will initially focus on producing revolutionary prototypes that will be certified in order to accelerate the delivery of these new memories to systems.
According to Simon Segars, CEO of ARM, the research team has made significant progress in advancing CeRAM technology over the past five years. The next step would be to commercialize this technology of the future.
The new company will be based in Austin and led by Eric Hennenhoefer and Greg Yeric, both former ARM Research executives. Hennenhoefer will be CEO of Cerfe Labs, and Yeric will serve as CTO (Chief Technology Officer). ARM will retain a minority stake in Cerfe Labs, and Jason Zajac, ARM's Chief Strategy Officer, will join the board of directors.
What is CeRAM?
According to Hennenhoefer, CeRAM is the most promising non-volatile memory in the industry, with features not found in any other memory technology to date. It is so promising that even DARPA (the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has taken an interest, and work carried out under the agency's ERI FRANC program has led to the identification of new materials for CeRAM and the study of their capabilities.
CeRAMs are based on metal-to-insulator and insulator-to-metal state transitions (called Mott transitions) in transition metal oxides such as nickel oxide. Such transitions can be triggered by applying a specific voltage and current density. As Cerfe Labs explains, Correlated Electron (CE) switches operate through strong electron orbital interactions, meaning they do not require a process to create a conduction path, unlike other types of ReRAM.
The advantages of CeRAM
The first advantage lies in its low cost . Production can be simplified. CeRAM can also be fabricated using other, more advanced techniques such as chemical deposition or atomic layer deposition, with the possibility of sub-nanometer scaling. CeRAM is also very fast, with tests showing switching times of less than 2 nanoseconds. Most CE materials switch in less than 100 femtoseconds .
It can operate at cryogenic temperatures or higher than other current technologies. Therefore, there are no limitations in terms of operating temperatures, which gives it excellent durability.
The memory operates at less than 0.6V and low current, and can be manufactured using many materials natively compatible with CMOS manufacturing, thus eliminating the need for high temperatures or new manufacturing techniques. It can adapt to any production process and is resistant to a wide range of disturbances. Unlike other non-volatile memories such as NAND flash memory used in SSDs, it exhibits no wear
This memory has strong potential for future applications: for example, it could replace SRAM in logic circuits, also affecting processor architecture. It could also be used to perform calculations itself, as in the case of neuromorphic architectures inspired by the human brain.
