“From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was obviously not thinking of 3D semiconductor memories when he said this but the thought is appropriate.
With the recent introduction of the first monolithic 3D Flash memory, the time is ripe to describe how the industry came to this point and what other “endless forms most beautiful” are being worked on.
This has been expertly done by Betty Prince in her new book, Vertical 3D Memory Technologies, published by John Wiley.
One of the main challenges confronting any author attempting to describe a wide and varied landscape is how to bring some order to help the reader make the much needed connections that aid in understanding. A good place to start is historical context and this is what Dr. Prince does with her first chapter devoted to the drive to the third dimension and the confluence of building block technologies enabling its rise. This sets the foundation for all chapters to come and is worth the time to digest and perhaps read some of the fundamental references.
Subsequent chapters can then be read in any order that suits the interests of the reader since they are excellent self-contained pieces with their own references. These deal with the following areas:
- 3D Memory Using Double-Gate, Folded, TFT, and Stacked Crystal Silicon
- Gate-All-Around (GAA) Nanowire for Vertical Memory
- Vertical NAND Flash
- 3D Cross-Point Array Memory
- 3D Stacking of RAM – Processor Chips Using TSV
The approach of a foundational chapter followed by five fairly independent chapters is particularly useful for interested and motivated spectators. The fact that each chapter has an astonishingly broad set of references makes this work also especially useful to experienced industry professionals and to anyone embarking on a career in this area.
In summary, Betty Prince has produced a piece of work that is timely and will undoubtedly become a classic text for 3D memory technologies. ~ AJW
