Spansion Inc. (CODE)

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EE Times: Semi News

Spansion tips NAND, but is EcoRAM dead?

Mark LaPedus
EE Times
(08/12/2009 5:27 PM EDT)

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Spansion Inc. is entering the NAND market, tipping a technology based on its charge-trap flash scheme.

At the Flash Memory Summit here, the memory maker talked about so-called 'MirrorBit NAND,' based on charge-trap technology.

Spansion sells NOR devices based on charge-trap, dubbed MirrorBit. It also markets something called Ornand, which is a NOR device with a NAND interface.

Spansion appears to be migrating the technology to NAND. With charged-trap, the company can scale devices down to the 1x-nm node, said Ali Pourkeramati, chief technology officer at Spansion, at the event.

The technology is also based on Sonos (silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon). It makes use of silicon nitride instead of polysilicon for the charge storage material. The company is moving MirrorBit NAND from the lab to the fab, he said.

Spansion is moving towards NAND, but there are also rumors that it is ceasing development of its green memory technology, dubbed EcoRAM. One customer for EcoRAM, Virident, believes Spansion will continue to develop the technology. E-mails to Spansion were not returned.