Formation of high density TiN nanocrystals and its application in non-volatile memories

Non-volatile memory based on TiN nanocrystal （TiN-NC） charge storage nodes embedded in SiO2 has been fabricated and its electrical properties have been measured. It was found that the density and size distribution of TiN-NCs can be controlled by annealing temperature. The formation of well separated crystalline TiN nano-dots with an average size of 5 nm is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms the existence of a transition layer of TiNxOy/SiON oxide between TiN-NC and SiO2, which reduces the barrier height of tunnel oxide and thereby enhances programming/erasing speed. The memory device shows a memory window of 2.5V and an endurance cycle throughout 10^5. Its charging mechanism, which is interpreted from the analysis of programming speed （dVth/dt） and the gate leakage versus voltage characteristics （Ig vs Vg）, has been explained by direct tunnelling for tunnel oxide and Fowler Nordheim tunnelling for control oxide at programming voltages lower than 9V, and by Fowler-Nordheim tunnelling for both the oxides at programming voltages higher than 9V.

Comparative evaluation of commercial Douchi by different molds:biogenic amines,non-volatile and volatile compounds

To provide new insights into the development and utilization of Douchi artificial starters,three common strains(Aspergillus oryzae,Mucor racemosus,and Rhizopus oligosporus)were used to study their influence on the fermentation of Douchi.The results showed that the biogenic amine contents of the three types of Douchi were all within the safe range and far lower than those of traditional fermented Douchi.Aspergillus-type Douchi produced more free amino acids than the other two types of Douchi,and its umami taste was more prominent in sensory evaluation(P<0.01),while Mucor-type and Rhizopus-type Douchi produced more esters and pyrazines,making the aroma,sauce,and Douchi flavor more abundant.According to the Pearson and PLS analyses results,sweetness was significantly negatively correlated with phenylalanine,cysteine,and acetic acid(P<0.05),bitterness was significantly negatively correlated with malic acid(P<0.05),the sour taste was significantly positively correlated with citric acid and most free amino acids(P<0.05),while astringency was significantly negatively correlated with glucose(P<0.001).Thirteen volatile compounds such as furfuryl alcohol,phenethyl alcohol,and benzaldehyde caused the flavor difference of three types of Douchi.This study provides theoretical basis for the selection of starting strains for commercial Douchi production.

Correlation of gut microorganisms and non-volatile flavor substances provides new insights for breeding Scylla paramamosain

The farming of Scylla paramamosain with specific flavors has a higher commercial value,and the flavors are related to the integrated farming environment and non-volatile flavor substances,while the survival environment is one of the important ways to source gut microorganisms in the organism.In this study,the levels of dominant taxa in the gut flora of S.paramamosain from Mong Cai,Vietnam(VN),Taishan City,Guangdong Province(TS)of China,and Ninghai County,Ningbo City(NB)Zhejiang Province of China converged with those of S.paramamosain from Sanmen County,Ningbo City(CK 1,CK 2,and CK 3)at 28 d of domestication.The top 15 genera with the highest abundance of VN,TS,and NB gut flora were the same as CK 1,CK 2,and CK 3,but with different percentages,and gradually converged to CK 1,CK 2,and CK 3,respectively,at 28 d of domestication.Correlation between intestinal flora and non-volatile flavor substances in the hepatopancreas at the percentage level of relative abundance of bacterial genera found that above 28 d of domestication,Muribaculaceae,Psychrilyobacter,Clostridia_vadinBB 60_group,Halarcobacter Carboxylicivirga,Sediminispirochaeta may be the most important genera affecting flavor amino acids of VN.Sediminispirochaeta,Carboxylicivirga,Halarcobacter,Photobacterium,ZOR 0006,Psychrilyobacter,and Pseudomonas may be the most important genera affecting flavor amino acids of NB.Sediminispirochaeta,Carboxylicivirga,Halarcobacter,Photobacterium,ZOR 0006,Vibrio,and Sphingomonas may be the most important genera affecting flavor amino acids of TS.These results show that the intestinal flora structure of crabs from different areas were domesticated in the same area for at least 28 d before they converged to that of the domesticated crab,and the most important genera affecting the flavor amino acids of TS,VN,and NB were also identified.The results of this study provide a reference and basis for the technique of directional cultivation of the flavor quality of the crab.

Correlation between dominant bacterial community and non-volatile organic compounds during the fermentation of shrimp sauces

Shrimp sauce,one of the traditional salt-fermented food in China,has a unique flavor that is influenced by the resident microflora.The quality of salt-fermented shrimp sauce was evaluated in this work by determining the total volatile basic nitrogen(TVB-N),the amino acid nitrogen(AAN),organic acid,5’-nucleotide and free amino acids(FAA).Moreover,the dynamics of microbial diversity during processing was investigated by using high-throughput sequencing technology.The results showed that the AAN,TVB-N,organic acid,5’-nucleotide and FAA content were in range of 0.93-1.42 g/100 mL,49.91-236.27 mg/100 mL,6.65-20.68 mg/mL,3.51-6.56 mg/mL and 81.27-102.90 mg/mL.Among the microbial diversity found in the shrimp sauce,Tetragenococcus,Flavobacterium,Polaribacter,Haematospirillum and Staphylococcus were the predominant genera.Correlation analysis indicated that the bacteria Tetragenococcus and Staphylococcus were important in the formation of non-volatile compounds.Tetragenococcus positively correlated with a variety of FAAs;Staphylococcus positively correlated with 5’-nucleotides.The analysis indicated that Tetragenococcus and Staphylococcus were the core genera affecting non-volatile components.These findings indicate the dynamics of the bacterial community and non-volatile components inter-relationships during shrimp sauce fermentation and provide a theoretical basis for improving the fermentation process of shrimp sauce.

A Low-Power,Single-Poly,Non-Volatile Memory for Passive RFID Tags

Single-poly,576bit non-volatile memory is designed and implemented in an SMIC 0.18μm standard CMOS process for the purpose of reducing the cost and power of passive RFID tag chips. The memory bit cell is designed with conventional single-poly pMOS transistors, based on the bi-directional Fowler-Nordheim tunneling effect, and the typical program/erase time is 10ms for every 16bits. A new ,single-ended sense amplifier is proposed to reduce the power dissipation in the current sensing scheme. The average current consumption of the whole memory chip is 0.8μA for the power supply voltage of 1.2V at a reading rate of 640kHz.

Effectiveness of ICU Diaries: Improving “Distorted Memories” Encountered during ICU Admission

Background: It is said that after ICU discharge, 40% of patients suffer from acute stress symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, caused by “distorted memories” (memory loss and delusions) due to various treatments in the ICU. This study focused on the quantitative and qualitative effects of ICU diaries on distorted memories that patients encountered during their time in the ICU. Aim: To assess improving distorted memories by providing information during ICU admission to patients to relieve the acute stress symptoms after ICU discharge. Design and Methods: This nonrandomized controlled trial included patients aged ≥20 years who had received treatment for ≥3 days in the ICU. Using ICU memory tool, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Acute Stress Disorder Scale (ASDS) approximately 1 week after ICU discharge, then HADS and ASDS prior to hospital discharge, the change in mean values were compared between two groups (control and intervention) using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The intervention group was surveyed prior to hospital discharge using semi-structured interviews, and descriptions were analyzed by the content analysis method of Krippendorff. Results: Twenty-three participants were included in the control group, and 17 in the intervention group. When comparing subjects with distorted memories between the groups, we found reduced values for HADS anxiety (7.1 ± 3.8 to 5.7 ± 2.7, p = 0.011), HADS depression (8.6 ± 5.0 to 7.2 ± 4.3, p = 0.003), and ASDS (46.9 ± 13.8 to 43.8 ± 11.4, p = 0.012) in the intervention group. Based on the narrations, patients wanted to investigate facts in the ICU diary while having someone help them to remember these events. Conclusion: Improving distorted memories during ICU admissions may relieve acute stress symptoms. In addition, these patients needed someone to investigate facts from the ICU admission.

Synthesization of high-capacity auto-associative memories using complex-valued neural networks

In this paper, a novel design procedure is proposed for synthesizing high-capacity auto-associative memories based on complex-valued neural networks with real-imaginary-type activation functions and constant delays. Stability criteria dependent on external inputs of neural networks are derived. The designed networks can retrieve the stored patterns by external inputs rather than initial conditions. The derivation can memorize the desired patterns with lower-dimensional neural networks than real-valued neural networks, and eliminate spurious equilibria of complex-valued neural networks. One numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness and superiority of the presented results.

Overview of one transistor type of hybrid organic ferroelectric non-volatile memory

Organic ferroelectric memory devices based on field effect transistors that can be configured between two stable states of on and off have been widely researched as the next generation data storage media in recent years.This emerging type of memory devices can lead to a new instrument system as a potential alternative to previous non-volatile memory building blocks in future processing units because of their numerous merits such as cost-effective process,simple structure and freedom in substrate choices.This bi-stable non-volatile memory device of information storage has been investigated using several organic or inorganic semiconductors with organic ferroelectric polymer materials.Recent progresses in this ferroelectric memory field,hybrid system have attracted a lot of attention due to their excellent device performance in comparison with that of all organic systems.In this paper,a general review of this type of ferroelectric non-volatile memory is provided,which include the device structure,organic ferroelectric materials,electrical characteristics and working principles.We also present some snapshots of our previous study on hybrid ferroelectric memories including our recent work based on zinc oxide nanowire channels.

A review of in situ transmission electron microscopy study on the switching mechanism and packaging reliability in non-volatile memory

Non-volatile memory(NVM)devices with non-volatility and low power consumption properties are important in the data storage field.The switching mechanism and packaging reliability issues in NVMs are of great research interest.The switching process in NVM devices accompanied by the evolution of microstructure and composition is fast and subtle.Transmission electron microscopy(TEM)with high spatial resolution and versatile external fields is widely used in analyzing the evolution of morphology,structures and chemical compositions at atomic scale.The various external stimuli,such as thermal,electrical,mechanical,optical and magnetic fields,provide a platform to probe and engineer NVM devices inside TEM in real-time.Such advanced technologies make it possible for an in situ and interactive manipulation of NVM devices without sacrificing the resolution.This technology facilitates the exploration of the intrinsic structure-switching mechanism of NVMs and the reliability issues in the memory package.In this review,the evolution of the functional layers in NVM devices characterized by the advanced in situ TEM technology is introduced,with intermetallic compounds forming and degradation process investigated.The principles and challenges of TEM technology on NVM device study are also discussed.

Low Power Computing Paradigms Based on Emerging Non-Volatile Nanodevices

Traditional digital processing approaches are based on semiconductor transistors, which suffer from high power consumption, aggravating with technology node scaling. To solve definitively this problem, a number of emerging non-volatile nanodevices are under intense investigations. Meanwhile, novel computing circuits are invented to dig the full potential of the nanodevices. The combination of non-volatile nanodevices with suitable computing paradigms have many merits compared with the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor （CMOS） technology based structures, such as zero standby power, ultra-high density, non-volatility, and acceptable access speed. In this paper, we overview and compare the computing paradigms based on the emerging nanodevices towards ultra-low dissipation.

Molecular dynamics simulations on the wet/dry self-latching and electric fields triggered wet/dry transitions between nanosheets:A non-volatile memory nanostructure

We design a nanostructure composing of two nanoscale graphene sheets parallelly immersed in water.Using molecular dynamics simulations,we demonstrate that the wet/dry state between the graphene sheets can be self-latched;moreover,the wet→dry/dry→wet transition takes place when applying an external electric field perpendicular/parallel to the graphene sheets(E;/E;).This structure works like a flash memory device(a non-volatile memory):the stored information(wet and dry states)of the system can be kept spontaneously,and can also be rewritten by external electric fields.On the one hand,when the distance between the two nanosheets is close to a certain distance,the free energy barriers for the transitions dry→wet and wet→dry can be quite large.As a result,the wet and dry states are self-latched.On the other hand,an E;and an E;will respectively increase and decrease the free energy of the water located in-between the two nanosheets.Consequently,the wet→dry and dry→wet transitions are observed.Our results may be useful for designing novel information memory devices.

Design of an Electrically Written and Optically Read Non-volatile Memory Device Employing BiFeO3/Au Heterostructures with Strong Absorption Resonance

Exploiting new concepts for dense, fast, and nonvolatile random access memory with reduced energy consump- tion is a significant issue for information technology. Here we design an ＇electrically written and optically read＇ information storage device employing BiFeO3/A u heterostruetures with strong absorption resonance. The electro- optic effect is the basis for the device design, which arises from the strong absorption resonance in BiFeO3/Au heterostructures and the electrically tunable significant birefringence of the BiFeO3 film. We first construct a sim- ulation calculation of the BiFeO3/Au structure spectrum and identify absorption resonance and electro-optical modulation characteristics. Following a micro scale partition, the surface reflected light intensity of different polarization units is calculated. The results depend on electric polarization states of the BiFeO3 film, thus BiFeO3/Au heterostructures can essentially be designed as a type of electrically written and optically read infor- mation storage device by utilizing the scanning near-field optical microscopy technology based on the conductive silicon cantilever tip with nanofabricated aperture. This work will shed light on information storage technology.

A Low Power Non-Volatile LR-WPAN Baseband Processor with Wake-Up Identification Receiver

The paper proposes a low power non-volatile baseband processor with wake-up identification(WUI) receiver for LR-WPAN transceiver.It consists of WUI receiver,main receiver,transmitter,non-volatile memory(NVM) and power management module.The main receiver adopts a unified simplified synchronization method and channel codec with proactive Reed-Solomon Bypass technique,which increases the robustness and energy efficiency of receiver.The WUI receiver specifies the communication node and wakes up the transceiver to reduce average power consumption of the transceiver.The embedded NVM can backup/restore the states information of processor that avoids the loss of the state information caused by power failure and reduces the unnecessary power of repetitive computation when the processor is waked up from power down mode.The baseband processor is designed and verified on a FPGA board.The simulated power consumption of processor is 5.1uW for transmitting and 28.2μW for receiving.The WUI receiver technique reduces the average power consumption of transceiver remarkably.If the transceiver operates 30 seconds in every 15 minutes,the average power consumption of the transceiver can be reduced by two orders of magnitude.The NVM avoids the loss of the state information caused by power failure and energy waste caused by repetitive computation.

An Overview of Non-Volatile Flip-Flops Based on Emerging Memory Technologies(Invited paper)

Low power consumption is a major issue in nowadays electronics systems. This trend is pushed by the development of data center related to cloud services and soon to the Internet of Things （IoT） deployment. Memories are one of the major contributors to power consumption. However, the development of emerging memory technologies paves the way to low-power design, through the partial replacement of the dynamic random access memory （DRAM） with the non-volatile stand-alone memory in servers or with the embedded or distributed emerging non-volatile memory in IoT objects. In the latter case, non-volatile flip-flops （NVFFs） seem a promising candidate to replace the retention latch. Indeed, IoT objects present long sleep time and NVFFs offer to save data in registers with zero power when the application is idle. This paper gives an overview of NVFF architecture flavors for various emerging memory technologies.

Brain Interactions between Extinction and Reconsolidation in the Treatment of Fear Memories

Memory traces become labile at the time of retrieval, and this initiates two protein synthesis-dependent processes in the brain: extinction, which inhibits their further retrieval, and reconsolidation, which may enhance retrieval or change the memory’s content. Extinction may itself suffer reconsolidation. Interactions between these processes may be applied to the treatment of fear memories, such as those underlying the post-traumatic stress disorder.

THE CODING GAINS OF MEMORIES

The coding gains including self-gain, mutual-gain and their variations for coding memory are denned, and the formulas for computing the gains are derived. The coding gains, used as the criteria, will be enable us to select an efficient code for memory system design quantitatively. Finally, the numerical results of some examples are analysed and discussed.

Bipolar resistive switching based on bis(8-hydroxyquinoline) cadmium complex:Mechanism and non-volatile memory application

Stable and persistent bipolar resistive switching was observed in an organic diode with the structure of indium-tin oxide （ITO）/bis（8-hydroxyquinoline） cadmium （Cdq2）/Al. Aggregate formation and electric field driven trapping and detrapping of charge carriers in the aggregate states that lie in the energy gap of the highest occupied molecular orbital （HOMO） and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital （LUMO） of the organic molecule were proposed as the mechanism of the observed bipolar resistive switching, and this was solidly supported by the results of AFM investigations. Repeatedly set, read, and reset measurements demonstrated that the device is potentially applicable in non-volatile memories.

Designing current–strain-assisted superconductor–ferromagnet multi-bit memories

Current superconducting memory devices lack the basic quality of high memory density for practical memories,mainly due to the size limitations of superconducting quantum interference devices.Here,we propose a superconductor–ferromagnet bilayer device with strain-pulse-assisted multi-bit ladder-type memory,by using strain-engineered ferromagnet domain structure to control carrier concentration in the superconductor,which is simulated by coupled Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert and Ginzburg–Landau equations.Current-and strain-pulses are observed to deterministically control the resistivity of superconductor for one and two-bit device arrangements.The average carrier concentration of superconductor is observed to have multiple metastable states that can be controllably switched using current-pulse and strain-pulse to determine multiple resistivity states.These findings confirm the eligibility of superconductor–ferromagnet bilayers to be used as ladder-type multibit memories and open a new way for further theoretical and experimental investigations of the cryogenic memories.

Pattern imprinting in deep sub-micron static random access memories induced by total dose irradiation

Pattem imprinting in deep sub-micron static random access memories （SRAMs） during total dose irradiation is inves- tigated in detail. As the dose accumulates, the data pattern of memory cells loading during irradiation is gradually imprinted on their background data pattern. We build a relationship between the memory cell＇s static noise margin （SNM） and the background data, and study the influence of irradiation on the probability density function of ASNM, which is the difference between two data sides＇ SNMs, to discuss the reason for pattern imprinting. Finally, we demonstrate that, for micron and deep sub-micron devices, the mechanism of pattern imprinting is the bias-dependent threshold shift of the transistor, but for a deep sub-micron device the shift results from charge trapping in the shallow trench isolation （STI） oxide rather than from the gate oxide of the micron-device.

Cellular automata modelling of phase-change memories

A novel approach to modelling phase-transition processes in phase change materials used for optical and electrical data storage applications is presented. The model is based on a cellular automaton （CA） approach to predict crystallization behaviour that is linked to thermal and electrical simulations to enable the study of the data writing and erasing processes. The CA approach is shown to be able to predict the evolution of the microstructure during the rapid heating and cooling cycles pertinent to data storage technology, and maps crystallization behaviour on the nanoscale. A simple example based on possible future nonvolatile phase-change random access solid-state memory is presented.