Storage devices (mainly refer to semiconductor products that store data) are generally divided into two types. One is “volatile memory”, whose data disappears when power is off, such as DRAM, SRAM. The other type is “non-volatile memory” , whose data will not disappear when power is off, which means that once data is written, data will not change as long as it is not erased or rewritten. FeRAM is the same non-volatile memory as Flash and EEPROM.
After long-term extensive verification in the market and continuous technological breakthroughs, Fujitsu FeRAM products have been successfully applied to smart cards, IC cards and other card fields, electrical instruments and industrial equipments and other industrial fields, medical equipment and medical RFID tags and other medical fields, tire pressure monitoring(TPMS) and new energy vehicle battery management systems(BMS) and other automotive fields, involving more than 200 applications, covering almost all major fields!
The current Fujitsu FeRAM has four major advantages: non-volatile, high read and write endurance, high-speed writing, and low power consumption, while most similar memories don’t have such features. For example, FeRAM has a lifetime of 10 trillion writes, while EEPROM has only a million (10 ^ 6). Fujitsu FeRAM can write data in 150ns, and the speed is about 1/30000 of EEPROM. The power consumption for writing a byte of data is only 150nJ, which is about 1/400 of EEPROM. It has great advantages in battery powered applications.
Compared to EEPROM or SRAM
FeRAM solution is most suitable to the following scenarios.
- Need to record data more frequently, but limited by memory specifications
- Data needs to be protected when writing data to prevent sudden power failure
- A battery free solution is required
Fujitsu FeRAM application fields
1.Automobile
Fujitsu FeRAM is widely used in automotive entertainment systems, such as automotive navigation systems and drive recorders. For these applications, it needs to record the drive data into memory in real time.
In addition, it can also be used in the vehicle emergency call system, commonly known as “eCall”. With the characteristics of fast writing speed and non volatile, it can protect the driving data in case of an accident. FeRAM can also be used for real-time data recording of air pressure sensor in Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) and temperature sensor in Battery Management System (BMS).
2.Industry
The “motors”, “rotary encoders”, “industrial robots” and “mechanical” tools “in modern factories often need to be operating 7 dasy 24 hours. In other words, the rotation counts of information such as position data are repeatedly stored in the memory in real time. Therefore, the memory must have the ability of fast data storage, especially high write speed and read/write durability.
In addition, if a temporary power outage occurs in the factory, the accurate machine location data during shutdown may not be recorded, which may cause significant loss of the product line. Therefore, it is necessary to select memory with fast memory capability and read/write speed. Fujitsu FeRAM is an ideal choice for industrial machines and process monitoring systems.
3.Infrastructure
Fujitsu FeRAM is also suitable for many infrastructure equipments. In smart electricity meters, gas meters and water meters, it is very important to keep continuous log records of data for stable and safe billing. Therefore, these instruments need semiconductor storage devices to ensure high read-write durability. In addition, even in the event of a power outage, you must ensure that data is written in time before it is lost.
Other infrastructure equipments, such as PLC, elevator, ticket vending machine and ATM, have the same requirements for high memory read/write durability and high-speed write.
4.Consumer products
In applications such as contactless IC cards, FeRAM can work quickly even with a small power supply. Even in battery driven applications such as “smart watches”, FRAM can help extend battery life and reduce power consumption.
FeRAM has used MFPs in many multi-function printers to record the copy history, and MFPs in UAVs to store flight data.