Fujitsu Ltd and Ramtron International Corp have signed a two year deal to jointly develop embedded memory chips using ferroelectric RAM using a 0.35 micron, multi-level metal process. The firms are planning to combine R&D efforts, equipment and personnel to develop 3-volt FRAM chips. The work will take place at FujitsuÆs CMOS fab in Iwate, Japan and RamtronÆs Colorado springs plant. The companies did not disclose the value of the deal but said that it was a multi-million dollar agreement.
The embedded chips are intended for use in ASICs and microcontrollers, according to the two companies. Fujitsu and Ramtron began working together in 1996 when they entered into a high-density FRAM development and licensing agreement. Since that time, the companies have produced prototype devices of a 1Mb FRAM memory chip and a microcontroller with 64 kilobits of embedded FRAM memory.
Fujitsu recently began delivering prototypes of RamtronÆs 64K and 256K parallel FRAM memories. The 64K and 256K products will be produced using FujitsuÆs existing 0.5-micron FRAM design rules at the manufacturing facility in Iwate. Production is scheduled for the second half of 1999.
Take-up of FRAM chip is expected to increase because the technology combines the access speed of dynamic RAM and synchronous RAM, with the non-volatility of ROM. Because of its high speed, it is replacing electrically erasable programmable ROM in many devices.
