Capacitorless DRAM using oxide semiconductors could be built in 3D layers above a processor’s silicon

One of the biggest problems in computing today is the “memory wall”—the difference between processing time and the time it takes to shuttle data over to the processor from separate DRAM memory chips. The increasingly popularity of AI applications has only made that problem more pronounced, because the huge networks that find faces, understand speech, and recommend consumer goods rarely fit in a processor’s on-board memory.

In December at IEEE International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM), separate research groups in the United States and in Belgium think a new kind of DRAM might be the solution. The new DRAM, made from oxide semiconductors and built in the layers above the processor, holds bits hundreds or thousands of times longer than commercial DRAM and could provide huge area and energy savings when running large neural nets, they say.

Continue reading: New Type of DRAM Could Accelerate AI (IEEE Spectrum)

The transistors in the capacitorless DRAM developed by U.S.-based researchers includes a tungsten-doped indium oxide [orange] semiconductor, palladium top and bottom gates [yellow], nickel source and drain electrodes [green] and hafnium oxide dielectrics [blue]. Image: University of Notre Dame