Adesto and Nordion Confirm Radiation Tolerance of CBRAM

October 21, 2013. Adesto Technologies, a memory solutions provider delivering products for code and data storage applications, and Nordion, with global expertise in the design and construction of commercial gamma irradiation systems, have announced the successful completion of gamma irradiation testing of Adesto’s CBRAM nonvolatile memory products. The results demonstrated CBRAM’s tolerance for gamma testing with device function and data storage surviving gamma radiation exposure. The testing, which exposed standard packaged CBRAM memory to doses up to 50 kGy (5 Mrad), was conducted at Nordion’s Gamma Centre of Excellence, an applied research and specialty gamma processing facility located in Quebec, Canada.

“The unique mechanism of data storage employed in CBRAM technology protects the data from the effects experienced by traditional nonvolatile memories when exposed to irradiation,” said Ishai Naveh, vice president of marketing, Adesto. “The results open new possibilities for Adesto and prospective customers. Medical applications and other uses that require sterile memory components and ultra-low power operation are natural matches for CBRAM technology.”

Adesto views CBRAM as an emerging, disruptive memory technology that can be integrated with standard semiconductor logic circuitry, function as a discrete memory device, or can be embedded in microcontrollers or a System-on-Chip (SOC).

“Gamma irradiation is a proven technique for the sterilization of single use medical devices and other consumer products that require strict microbial decontamination,” said Emily Craven, manager of sterilization science at Nordion. “Nordion’s Gamma Centre of Excellence promotes the use of gamma globally through programs like the development of new applications for semiconductor technologies. We were excited to work with Adesto because we saw the potential benefit to the medical device industry in having electronic storage available in final product packaging which was previously challenging with gamma sterilization.”