Toshiba technologies are hard at work in virtually every sphere of human activity - here, there, and everywhere. The Corporate Research & Development Center is the source of Toshiba's technological prowess. This is where we ready our discoveries and inventions for application in new products and systems to empower people and enrich lives throughout the world. With "Leading Innovation" as our guiding principle, we offer "Delight and Surprise" while ensuring everyday life is "Safe and Sound." Our present is the prelude to tomorrow's achievements. Here, experts in diverse fields tackle R&D of technologies poised to propel Toshiba into the future.

Toshiba America Research, Inc. (TARI) is based in San Jose, California and primarily focuses its research and development activities on next generation semiconductor technologies and system LSI.

10 nm SONOS Type Memory Device Using Double Tunnel Junction
Toshiba has developed a new technology based on a silicon oxide nitride oxide semiconductor (SONOS) type memory structure having the potential for application to future 10 nm node flash memories, making it possible to realize the world's smallest(*) flash memory cell node. The technology also has the potential for even smaller nodes.

Toshiba achieved this by successfully fabricating an ultrathin, 1.1 nm silicon nanocrystal layer inside tunnel oxide films, using the advantageous characteristic that control of gate voltage can be employed to achieve large changes in tunnel resistance. This structure achieves the required levels of performance and reliability; namely, 10 years' data retention plus high-speed data writing and deletion. The most notable characteristic of the technology is that the smaller the silicon nanocrystals become, the higher the expectable memory performance. Since there is still room for miniaturizing silicon nanocrystals, this technology has prospects for applications below 10 nm; that is, at a single-digit nanometer node.

(*) As of December 2008 (as researched by Toshiba)