This article reviews the current status and future prospects for the use of nanomaterials and devices in memory technology. First, the status and continuing scaling trends of the flash memory are discussed. Then, a detailed discussion on technologies trying to replace flash in the near-term is provided. This includes phase change random access memory, Fe random access memory and magnetic random access memory. The long-term nanotechnology prospects for memory devices include carbon-nanotube-based memory, molecular electronics and memristors based on resistive materials such as TiO(2).

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) performance of N-type double-gated Si nanowire (NW) thin-film transistors is investigated, for the first time, using the transmission line pulsing technique. The ESD robustness of these devices depends on the NW dimension, number of channels, plasma treatment, and layout topology. The failure currents, leakage currents, and ON-state resistances are characterized, and possible ESD protection applications of these devices for future NW field-effect-transistor-based integrated circuits are also discussed.Index Terms-Electrostatic discharge (ESD), failure current I t2 , nanowire (NW) field-effect transistor, ON-state resistance.