Current flash memory chips have a lifetime of around 10 years and a maximum of 10000 rewrites, but new flash memory technology developed by Japanese researchers promises a potential lifetime of several hundreds of years.
The new ferroelectric chips, developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology as well as the University of Tokyo, will also be smaller in size and will operate at lower voltage levels.
Current generation flash chips cannot be produced on circuits smaller than 20 nanometers while the first version of the new chip will be produced at 10 nanometers only. The new chips can be rewritten up to 100 million times, partly because it utilizes a rewriting voltage of less than 6 volts, compared to current flash chips' 20 volts.
