Ramtron Said to Have World's Lowest Energy Nonvolatile Memory

Ramtron International Corporation, developer and supplier of nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (F-RAM) and integrated semiconductor products, announced the lowest energy nonvolatile memory product.



The FM25P16 is a 16-kilobit serial nonvolatile memory that opens up new possibilities in power-sensitive system design with the industry's lowest energy consumption in a nonvolatile memory device. As the first member of the Ramtron Low Energy Memory family, the FM25P16 uses 1/1,000th the energy of Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) devices, while delivering fast read/write performance and virtually unlimited endurance.

"The fast write ability of nonvolatile F-RAM combined with an innovative IC design has enabled us to achieve the lowest energy consumption to date in a nonvolatile memory device with a typical active current of about 3 microamps," said Scott Emley, Ramtron vice president of marketing. "Using Ramtron Low Energy memory products, power sensitive systems including wireless sensor nodes, remote metering, health and fitness products, as well as emerging energy harvesting applications can write data orders of magnitude more frequently while lowering system power."

The benefit of Ramtron low energy memory increases as the system writes data more frequently. Unlike serial EEPROMs, FM25P16 can perform fast and power-efficient write operations at bus speed with no write delays. These capabilities make FM25P16 for nonvolatile memory applications requiring both low power and frequent or rapid writes.

About the FM25P16 Low Energy Memory
The FM25P16 employs an advanced ferroelectric process that yields virtually unlimited endurance of 100-trillion read/write cycles and reliable data retention for 10 years. The FM25P16 uses a fast serial peripheral interface (SPI), operating up to full bus speed of 1MHz frequency.

FM25P16 Features

• 16K-bit Ferroelectric Nonvolatile RAM organized as 2,044 x 8 bits
• Virtually unlimited read/write cycles
• 10-year data retention
• NoDelay writes

Low Power Operation

• 1.8 - 3.6V operation
• 3.2 µA (typ.) active current @ 100 kHz
• 1.2 µA (typ.) standby current

Serial Peripheral Interface - SPI

• Up to 1 MHz frequency
• SPI mode 0 & 3

Industry Standard Configuration

• Industrial temperature -40°C to +85°C
• 'Green'/RoHS 8-pin SOIC package

Pricing and Availability
The FM25P16 is now sampling in limited quantities with an expected resale unit price of $0.99 in 10K volume.