Some highlights are when foundational technology was created versus when it was commercialized. It’s amazing how quickly certain technologies took off after commercialization, but also how long it others took to come to market.
On behalf of Prof. Simon M. Sze, I am writing you for some revising and timeline correction.
The following revising and timeline correction are suggested by Prof. Simon M. Sze.
1952
MIT’s Dudley Buck creates first semiconductor non-volatile memory from ferroelectric crystals.
1955
Bell Labs’ Merz and Anderson create monolithic 256-bit FRAM ferroelectric non-volatile memory, the first monolithic memory chip.
Correction:
The focus of these papers is on FRAM, a type of memory that differs significantly from Flash Memory. As a result, we recommend removing the above two items.
C.T. “Tom” Sah of Fairchild envisions floating gate NVM using charge storage on the gate electrode of a MOS tetrode transistor.
Correction:
1961 C.T. Sah: Dr. Sah noticed the Floating Gate memory effects but did not publish it. Therefore, the statements are unsupported claims that do not contribute to public progress of the art.
Dov Frohman-Bentchkowsky writes Berkley PhD thesis “Charge Transport and Trapping in MNOS Structures and its Memory Applications” and builds a 9-bit prototype.
Correction:
1965 Dov … PhD thesis … not published, same as 1961.
Dawon Kahng and Simon Sze invent the Non-Volatile Memory Floating Gate at Bell Labs; this is published as “A Floating Gate and Its Application to Memory Devices” (Bell System Technical Journal) ·
Correction:
Dawon Kahng and Simon Sze discovered the floating-gate Non-Volatile Memory effect at Bell Labs. The result was submitted to Bell System Technical Journal as “A Floating Gate and Its Application to Memory Devices” on May 16, 1967, published on July 1, 1967.
John R. Szedon and Ting L. Chu of Westinghouse propose using a charge trap as a non-volatile memory bit at the IEEE Solid State Device Research
Correction:
The focus of their talk was on a multilayered capacitor, which is unrelated to non-volatile memory. As a result, we recommend removing above statement.
Therefore, the discovery of non-volatile memory effect in semiconductor was first reported by Kahng and Sze in 1967. (“A Floating Gate and Its Application to Memory Devices,” Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 46, Number 6, July / August, 1967)
In addition, Flash Memory (1984) is not an invention, and it is an innovation based on the floating-gate-memory concept (1967) discovered by Kahng and Sze.
The History And Timeline Of Flash Memory
Would love to see an article on the future of Storage Class Memory, particularly after the discontinuation of Optane by Intel.
Dear Sir/Madam,
On behalf of Prof. Simon M. Sze, I am writing you for some revising and timeline correction.
The following revising and timeline correction are suggested by Prof. Simon M. Sze.
1952
MIT’s Dudley Buck creates first semiconductor non-volatile memory from ferroelectric crystals.
1955
Bell Labs’ Merz and Anderson create monolithic 256-bit FRAM ferroelectric non-volatile memory, the first monolithic memory chip.
Correction:
The focus of these papers is on FRAM, a type of memory that differs significantly from Flash Memory. As a result, we recommend removing the above two items.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1961
C.T. “Tom” Sah of Fairchild envisions floating gate NVM using charge storage on the gate electrode of a MOS tetrode transistor.
Correction:
1961 C.T. Sah: Dr. Sah noticed the Floating Gate memory effects but did not publish it. Therefore, the statements are unsupported claims that do not contribute to public progress of the art.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1965
Dov Frohman-Bentchkowsky writes Berkley PhD thesis “Charge Transport and Trapping in MNOS Structures and its Memory Applications” and builds a 9-bit prototype.
Correction:
1965 Dov … PhD thesis … not published, same as 1961.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1966
Edgar A. Sack, Ting L. Chu and others of Westinghouse use a Metal-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (MNOS) structure as a charge-trapping element.
Correction:
1966 Edgar, same as 1961.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1967
Dawon Kahng and Simon Sze invent the Non-Volatile Memory Floating Gate at Bell Labs; this is published as “A Floating Gate and Its Application to Memory Devices” (Bell System Technical Journal) ·
Correction:
Dawon Kahng and Simon Sze discovered the floating-gate Non-Volatile Memory effect at Bell Labs. The result was submitted to Bell System Technical Journal as “A Floating Gate and Its Application to Memory Devices” on May 16, 1967, published on July 1, 1967.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John R. Szedon and Ting L. Chu of Westinghouse propose using a charge trap as a non-volatile memory bit at the IEEE Solid State Device Research
Correction:
The focus of their talk was on a multilayered capacitor, which is unrelated to non-volatile memory. As a result, we recommend removing above statement.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Therefore, the discovery of non-volatile memory effect in semiconductor was first reported by Kahng and Sze in 1967. (“A Floating Gate and Its Application to Memory Devices,” Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 46, Number 6, July / August, 1967)
In addition, Flash Memory (1984) is not an invention, and it is an innovation based on the floating-gate-memory concept (1967) discovered by Kahng and Sze.
I had also written to timeline@FlashMemorySummit.com
Thank you.
Very nice article. Off topic - do you plan to write an article on RISC-V?
Impressive article.