A team of Korean scientists has developed
the world's first 8nm non-volatile flash memory unit cell that could one day
be built into a semiconductor chip. The creation of the new flash memory was
possible by the merging of nanowires with silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon
technology. A fully developed tera-level NAND flash memory can hold 500,000
audio songs in an MP3 file format or record 1,250 DVD films and 1 million high
resolution photos within a space equal to that of a person's fingernail. A
nanometer is equal to one-billionth of a meter, roughly one-12,000th of the
thickness of an average person's hair. Details of the breakthrough are to be
made public at an international symposium of the Very-Large-Scale-Integration
Technology scheduled to begin in Kyoto, Japan on June 12.