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Starting from interface engineering, the team of Zhou Peng and Liu Chunsen from Fudan University in Shanghai has achieved the largest-scale 1Kb nanosecond ultrafast flash memory array integration verification in the world for the first time, and proved that its ultrafast characteristics can be extended to sub-10 nanometers. The relevant research results were published in the international journal Nature Electronics on the 12th.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence urgently requires high-speed non-volatile storage technology. The current mainstream non-volatile flash memory programming speed is generally in the hundreds of microseconds, which cannot support application needs. The research team found in the early stage that the two-dimensional semiconductor structure can increase its speed by more than a thousand times, realizing subversive nanosecond ultra-fast storage flash memory technology. However, it is still challenging to achieve large-scale integration and move towards practical application.

To this end, the researchers developed super-interface engineering technology, realized heterogeneous interfaces with atomic-level flatness in large-scale two-dimensional flash memory, and combined with high-precision characterization technology, it shows that the integration process is better than the international level. Through strict DC storage window and AC pulse storage performance tests, the researchers confirmed that the yield of the two-dimensional new mechanism flash memory can be as high as 98% at the nanosecond non-volatile programming speed in the 1Kb storage scale, which is higher than the 89.5% yield requirement for flash memory manufacturing in the international semiconductor technology roadmap.

At the same time, the research team developed a self-aligned process that does not rely on advanced lithography equipment, combined with the original innovative ultra-fast storage stacked electric field design theory, and successfully realized an ultra-fast flash memory device with a channel length of 8 nanometers. This device is currently the world's shortest channel flash memory device, breaking the physical size limit of silicon-based flash memory, about 15 nanometers. Supported by an atomically thin channel, this ultra-small device has 20 nanosecond ultra-fast programming, 10 years of non-volatility, 100,000 cycle life and multi-state storage performance.

According to the researchers, this research work will promote the industrial application of ultra-fast flash memory technology.