Editorial Special Issue on “Memory Devices and Technologies for the Next Decade”

The expected explosive growth of big data, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and 5G mobile networks will not only challenge but also offer new opportunities to solid-state memories in the next decade. Mainstream technologies such as the 3-D NAND Flash and the 1T-1C DRAM technology will have to keep evolving to prolong their scaling trends and maintain their undisputed leadership in the standalone memory arena. At the same time, other memory technologies may take advantage of the rise of the new market applications, likely changing the balance among cost, performance, and reliability. Phase-change memories (PCM), magnetoresistive random-access memories (MRAM), resistive random-access memories (ReRAM), and ferroelectric memories have the potential to play a role both in the embedded and in the standalone memory market. However, all of them will need innovations to fully demonstrate their long-term performance. Finally, all the memory technologies will have to compete to prove the benefits of new applications and solutions, such as the mixing of storage and computing with in-memory computing, neuromorphic computing, and nonvolatile logic.