Current non-volatile memory products, a $30B market, are dominated by flash memories. However, flash memory is facing challenges of unable to scale down for future market.

Resistance-switching cell is one of the most promising contenders for replacing flash memory. The new member cell developed at Penn is a resistance-switching device using Si-based amorphous materials. The entire device is fabricated on Si substrate using standard CMOS equipment, therefore compatible with IC process. The memory cells showed very promising performance: 25ns switching time, 2~4V threshold, 100 or better on/off ratio, and long memory retention time.