Issues and development trends respecting embedded DRAM(eDRAM) are reviewed by referring to real implementations for 0.5um, 0.35um and 0.25um generations.Chip performance has been progressively improved throughout the development of 0.5um, 0.35um and 0.25um eDRAM. However, the number of process steps has increased compared to that for commodity DRAM. To avoid increasing cost and achieve the highest possible device performance, future directions of the embedded DRAM technologies, including MOSFET structure, memory cells, product cost and performance, are also discussed.