Adesto and Altis to develop and manufacture breakthrough CBRAM platform

SUNNYVALE, USA: Adesto Technologies, the leading developer of Conductive Bridging RAM (CBRAM), a low power and low cost CMOS non-volatile memory solution, and Altis Semiconductor, the innovative European Specialty Foundry have announced the formation of a development and manufacturing partnership that will lead to the delivery of the world’s first Conductive Bridging RAM (CBRAM) based devices in 2011.

Adesto Technologies and Altis reached their formal agreement after two and half years of close collaboration on the development of Adesto’s CBRAM technology and products leading the way to the production of world’s first resistive RAM memory device.

“We are pleased to announce this significant milestone that enables us to introduce our first commercial CBRAM non-volatile memory product,” said Narbeh Derhacobian, CEO of Adesto Technologies. “Altis has been a valuable partner that has demonstrated a high level of know-how and innovation in the development of our technology. Both companies have worked relentlessly to reach fully yielding devices in relatively record time which is a significant milestone in any new memory technology development effort.”

Adesto Technologies develops CBRAM non-volatile stand alone memory devices and embedded memory cores for licensing in a wide range of System-on-Chip applications. The company now holds a leadership position in the CBRAM memory technology IP and manufacturing know-how. CBRAM is considered to be best suited to replace today's floating gate based non-volatile memories used in discrete Flash memory devices and embedded System-on-Chip devices. CBRAM technology has been shown to scale both physically with Moore’s Law to below 20nm as well as operationally with sub 1 volt operation.

Moreover, the capability of CBRAM cells to be programmed at sub 100ns speeds demonstrate a memory technology capable of high performance and low energy operation well suited for many low power applications such as mobile devices and power efficient servers. The energy consumption of CBRAM technology has already demonstrated to be more than 100 times lower than current flash memory technologies in the market.

Altis Semiconductor offers semiconductor technologies and services suitable for market segments like mobile, security and automotive. Specialty technologies in RF, embedded Non Volatile Memory and high voltage offer the ability to address high value-added applications and these differentiated technologies are manufactured in the Corbeil-Essonnes fab under strict, proven operational and quality controls.

“We are ready for production ramp-up and commercialization. CBRAM is the low cost, low power and scalable emerging memory technology that opens up many opportunities for both Altis and Adesto,” said Jean-Paul Beisson, CEO of Altis.

“Since the start of our joint collaboration, Adesto has demonstrated the ability to rapidly integrate CBRAM into our specialty CMOS process, leveraging Altis’ extensive experience in copper interconnects and emerging memory technologies. We reached target device yields in record time, covering all aspects from design support to mastering ramp up issues. Our dedicated production grade manufacturing toolsets and experienced engineering team has been a key to this success.”

“Adesto has made tremendous progress in commercializing CBRAM,” said Bob Merritt, an emerging memory market analyst and founding partner in Convergent Semiconductors. He added, “The manufacturing partnership with Altis will accelerate the introduction of CBRAM in a market that is looking to replace today’s Flash technologies.”