A Dram-Like Mechanical Non-Volatile Memory

A DRAM-like mechanical non-volatile memory (NVM) is newly proposed and fabricated using CMOS-compatible poly-Si surface micromachining. The key concept is developed that the proposed memory is non-volatile because the MEMS switch can clearly eliminate the leakage current when the device is off. The mechanical NVM shows excellent on-off characteristics (sub-threshold swing~4mV/decade), high switching speed (~300kHz) and non-volatility. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of the mechanical NVM as a new memory for ULSI applications.