Xref: utzoo comp.misc:7403 sci.electronics:8665
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!fox!portal!cup.portal.com!mmm
From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Non-volatile Memory--EEPROM
Message-ID: <24133@cup.portal.com>
Date: 17 Nov 89 03:40:42 GMT
References: <1308@rodan.acs.syr.edu> <65243@psuecl.bitnet>
  <12459@fluke.COM>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 24

kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth) says:

> 3.  (Most out-there) Ferroelectric RAM.  These are the semiconductor version
>     of core memory.  RAMTRON is the US company that makes these.  These were
>     all over the ISSCC conference proceedings a couple of years ago, but
>     there are problems with the manufacturing process that are limiting their
>     commercial development.  Ferroelectric RAM has the theoretical potential
>     to beat dynamic RAM in density (if you believe the press releases) is
>     intrinsically non-volatile, and has fast read and write access.

Not quite true.  Ferroelectric RAM is only like magnetic core in the sense
that it stores data and is non-volatile.  It is not at all a magnetic
technology.

Ferroelectric technology got its unfortunate name because of the similarity
of ferroelectric materials to ferromagnetic materials.  Both can be used
to create bistable devices.  In the case of ferromagnetic materials, an
imposed magnetic field can be used to flip the magnetism of a core memory
cell.  In the case of ferroelectric materials, an imposed electric field
can be used to flip the charge on a capacitor.  A common ferroelectric
material is lead zirconate titanate, which you'll notice contains no iron.

Sources of ferroelectric RAM's are Ramtron (Colorado Springs, CO) and
Krysalis (Sunnyvale, CA).