ULTRARAM aims to out-perform DRAM with the added advantage of non-volatility.
LANCASTER, England & SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Quinas Technology, the spinout from Lancaster University formed to commercialise ULTRARAM™ memory, has been named as Best of Show in the Most Innovative Flash Memory Startup category at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, CA, the world’s largest independent storage and memory conference. Invented by Professor Manus Hayne from the Physics Department at Lancaster University, ULTRARAM combines the high performance of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) with the non-volatility of flash, something that was widely believed to be unachievable. It has the ability to both store data for more than 1,000 years – exceeding the capabilities of flash, and also to be read from and written to very quickly and at lower energy than DRAM.
Similar to a compound semiconductor version of flash, ULTRARAM exploits the quantum-mechanical effect of resonant tunnelling, replacing the oxide tunnel barrier in flash with a triple-barrier resonant tunnelling structure. This eliminates flash’s deficiencies, allowing a floating-gate memory to operate at low voltage and high speed, with high endurance and unprecedented efficiency, but without compromising on non-volatility.
Quinas’ commercial objective is to develop the technology into a product that can out-perform DRAM, the working memory in digital electronics and computing, with the significant added advantage of non-volatility.