Micron Debuts 45nm Phase-Change Memory for Mobile Devices

Micron Debuts 45nm Phase-Change Memory for Mobile Devices

Micron has announced the high-volume availability of its 45-nanometer (nm) phase-change memory (PCM) for feature phones. The company said that it has plans to offer its PCM solutions to smartphones and tablet manufacturers in the near future.

PCM works by exploiting the unique behavior of chalcogenide glass. With precise application of jolts of electricity to specific areas of the glass, creating heat and trigger a change in state (from crystalline to amorphous) of the glass at these areas of application. This allows the PCM to manipulate the amorphous bit like a single bit, akin to a cell of a single-cell SLC flash memory chip.

According to Micron, the company will be producing multi-chip packages with 1GB of PCM (45nm) accompanied by 512MB of LPDDR2 (mobile DDR). Its limited capacity makes it unsuitable for smartphones and media tablets. This is the main reason why Micron's PCM will only make its debut in feature phones. There are no specific details on when its PCM will begin making in-roads into higher-end computing equipment.

Source: Micron, Wikipedia, Signal Lake Management LLC