F-RAM Memory (Nonvolatile Ferroelectric RAM)

Portable and implantable medical devices are life-enhancing devices that replace, support, or monitor damaged or weak biological structures in the human body. Some common examples include continuous glucose monitors, neuromodulators, cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators.

The latest-generation of portable and implantable medical devices continuously record large amounts of patient data and provide over-the-air diagnostics. Extended battery life, high reliability and ensuring the smallest form-factor are key design problems that system designers face.

A fitness tracker monitors and tracks fitness-related metrics such as distance walked or run, calorie consumption, and in some cases, heartbeat and quality of sleep. The most-common fitness trackers are smartwatches that are synced, in many cases wirelessly, to a computer or smartphone for long-term data tracking.

The latest-generation fitness trackers continuously record large amounts of user data to provide valuable insights about the user’s health, fitness, and general well-being. Fitness trackers also continue to shrink in size and have taken ultra-small form factors, like rings. Maximizing battery life and ensuring the smallest form-factor are key design problems that fitness tracker designers face.

A programmable logic controller (PLC), or programmable controller is an industrial digital computer which has been ruggedized and adapted for the control of manufacturing processes such as assembly lines and robotic devices or any activity requiring high reliability control, ease of programming and process fault diagnosis.

PLCs are required to continuously log real-time system data and capture the system state data automatically on power loss or system failure. This is required to enable efficient and safe factory operation as well as advancements like predictive analytics and preventive maintenance.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are intelligent systems developed for vehicles to improve safety and aid better driving. The safety features are designed to avoid collisions by alerting the driver to potential problems, or to avoid collisions by implementing safeguards and taking over control of the vehicle.

Camera-based Vision Systems form an integral part of ADAS and are the key to driver assistance functions, such as collision avoidance, and can also support the driver in reducing the severity of an accident. As vehicles become more autonomous, there is an urgent need for the highest reliability event-data-recorders in ADAS Vision Systems, to ensure last event capture.

Smart electricity meters, or smart e-meters, measure the amount of electric power consumed by a business, residence, or piece of equipment and periodically send the information back to a utility company for monitoring and billing. Each smart e-meter has a nonvolatile memory to store the data between the time it is collected and the time it is sent to the utility company. F-RAM is chosen for this application because of its high endurance which supports frequent data collection, its low-energy consumption and its ability to instantly capture data on power loss, preventing any lost data.