Freescale's Flash Memory

Flash memory, a popular form of information storage device nowadays, is a nonvolatile form of memory and it does not need any power to store information. Flash devices store information by applying an electric field to a polycrystalline silicon at the center of a transistor (termed "floating gate") . This is surrounded by an insulating material that needs to be relatively thick so that small defects in floating gate don't allow the charge to leak out. So, today's flash devices like 4GB iPod Nano still carry lot of inactive material in it.

Freescale Semiconductor of Austin, TX (a Motorola spinoff) is all set to change this scenario. This week the company announced the application of a technology based on nanoscale materials to develop a new generation of flash memory that will be half the size of conventional flash devices and could cost much less. The new technology will replace the solid silicon gate with a large number of tiny silicon crystals separated by little amount of insulation. In this configuration, the charge may leak from only a couple of neighboring nanocrystals but will keep most of the stored charge intact. With much reduced amount of needed insulation, the memory may occupy only half as much space. This means a flash-based gadget will be able to contain twice as many songs.

Freescale has already demonstrated a 24-megabit flash device using these nanoscale materials. Commercial products of these flash memory cards would be available by the end of 2008, the company said.