Weebit Nano achieves working memory cells ahead of schedule

Computer memory technology developer Weebit Nano (ASX: WBT) has achieved its milestone of 40-nanometre working memory cells one month ahead of schedule.

The Israel-based company today reported measurements performed on the silicone oxide ReRAM cells verified its ability to maintain its memory behaviour in line with experiments performed on 300nm cells.

The 40nm size is a common technology node used in many devices including mobile phones, laptops and wearable technology like smart watches and fitness trackers.

According to Weebit Nano, the experiments proved the technology could be scaled down to be used in a wide variety of applications on small devices while maintaining the capabilities of larger cells.

“Demonstrating such an advanced geometry paves the way for us to further develop our technology by scaling up array capabilities for use in different applications and integrating into deeply scaled down CMOS technologies that are used in all processors, RAM and digital logic circuits on most small devices,” Weebit Nano chief executive Coby Hanoch said.

According to Weebit Nano chairman David Perlmutter, not only was the company one month ahead of schedule, it also took less than two years to do what other companies have taken ten years to achieve due to the company’s focus on silicon oxide, which does not require special equipment or processes.

“Our development strategy, which focuses on unique IP that capitalises on known manufacturing processes, is paying off with fast and flawless execution,” Perlmutter said.

Weebit Nano plans to continue its testing of the 40nm cells’ performance and will begin to scale up its array capacity into kilobyte and megabyte arrays structures during the first half of next year.

Shares in Weebit Nano were up 27% by afternoon trade.

ReRAM technology

Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) is a computer storage technology set to replace the existing flash technology used commonly in computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones today. With increasingly more information needing to be stored on these devices, flash memory has limited scalability.

Weebit Nano has been developing its ReRAM technology under a research and development agreement with nanotechnology institute Leti, at Leti’s pre-industrialisation facilities in Grenoble, France.

The company is working to demonstrate that its ReRAM memory cells, made from silicon oxide are significantly cheaper, faster, more reliable and more energy efficient than existing flash technology.