The 32nm race is almost over and now semiconductor industry is focusing on 22nm manufacturing technology. IBM, AMD and Toshiba today announced that they have developed a foundation for what should lead 22nm RAM technology. They have developed a 0.128-micrometer static RAM cells by using high-k metal gate technology and fin-like field effect transistors. The new RAM cell is less than half the size of previous RAM cells this reduction in size allows more cells to fit in a given space.
Though, development of 0.128-micrometer cells is just the initial step in complete development of 22nm process based RAM, it is an important one. Presently, memory sticks are limited by 4GB capacity, but this development can open gates for memory sticks with capacity up to 16GB or even 32GB. 22nm based RAM won’t hit the market before 2011, however that is not stopping Toshiba, as they have already started development and testing of cells as small as 0.063-micrometers, which would increase the memory density further.
[Via Electronista]