Non-Volatile Memory for Extreme Environments

DARPA seeks to enable high performance computing for DoW systems that must function in extreme environments. Nonvolatile memory is a bottleneck, even in commercial High-Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence systems. This phenomenon is referred to as the ‘Memory Wall’, where processing speeds become limited by memory access time. While there has been extensive research in emerging technologies to overcome this barrier, no commercial technology has shown the ability to reliably function in both high temperature and high radiation environments.Today's charge-trap based NVMs, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), and resistive RAM (RRAM), each have significant deficiencies that limit their use in extreme conditions. MRAM, which stores data using magnetic states rather than electrical charges, offers some inherent advantages in radiation-heavy environments. However, current MRAM technology is typically limited to an operating temperature of around 105°C, falling short of the requirement for some of the most demanding applications. RRAM is a promising technology that relies on the formation and rupture of conductive filaments. While it has shown some radiation hardness, RRAM can suffer from filament instability and variable resistance when exposed to radiation, leading to unreliable performance. The ideal NVM for extreme environments would possess several key characteristics:• Inherent radiation hardness: the fundamental storage mechanism should be resistant to the effects of ionizing radiation, minimizing the need for heavy and power-consuming shielding. • Wide temperature range: the memory must be able to operate reliably across a vast temperature range, from the cold of deep space to the heat of a nuclear reactor. • High endurance and retention: the memory must be able to withstand a high number of read and write cycles and retain data for long periods without power. • Low power consumption: power is a precious resource in space and other remote applications, so the memory must be highly energy efficient. This SBIR program seeks demonstration of a non-volatile memory device that is resistant to extreme temperatures and radiation as a critical enabler for future advancements in space exploration, nuclear energy, and strategic defense. The radiation hardened memory should have an operating temperature range of -269C to 600C with a density of at least 1Mb, and operating frequency of 10MHz. Due to the broad and dual-use nature of Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technologies, security classification and export control requirements vary significantly based on the specific node, fabrication process and intended end-use. Proposers are solely responsible for determining the appropriate security classification of their proposed effort. If the memory system makes use of CMOS (i.e. for peripheral control logic), proposers must consider and describe the impacts of relevant DoW Security Classification guides to the proposed work.