Fujio Masuoka
{{short description|Japanese engineer (born 1943)}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = {{Nihongo|Fujio Masuoka|舛岡 富士雄}}
|image = 舛岡富士雄.jpg
|birth_date = {{Birth-date and age |May 8, 1943}}
|birth_place = Takasaki, Gunma
|nationality = Japanese
|fields = Electrical engineering
|alma_mater = Tohoku University
|workplaces = Toshiba
Tohoku University
Unisantis
|doctoral_advisor = Jun-ichi Nishizawa
|academic_advisors =
|doctoral_students =
|notable_students =
|known_for = Flash memory
NOR flash
NAND flash
GAAFET
|awards = IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award
}}
{{Nihongo|Fujio Masuoka|舛岡 富士雄|Masuoka Fujio|born May 8, 1943}} is a Japanese engineer, who has worked for Toshiba and Tohoku University, and is currently chief technical officer (CTO) of Unisantis Electronics. He is best known as the inventor of flash memory, including the development of both the NOR flash and NAND flash types in the 1980s.{{Cite web |title= Oral History of Fujio Masuoka |author= Jeff Katz |date= September 21, 2012 |publisher= Computer History Museum |url= http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2013/01/102746492-05-01-acc.pdf |access-date= March 20, 2017 }} He also invented the first gate-all-around (GAA) MOSFET (GAAFET) transistor, an early non-planar 3D transistor, in 1988.
Biography
Masuoka attended Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, where he earned an undergraduate degree in engineering in 1966 and doctorate in 1971.{{Cite web |title= Company profile |publisher= Unisantis-Electronics (Japan) Ltd. |url= http://www.unisantis-el.jp/profile.htm |access-date= March 20, 2017 |archive-date= February 22, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070222112935/http://www.unisantis-el.jp/profile.htm }}
He joined Toshiba in 1971. There, he invented stacked-gate avalanche-injection metal–oxide–semiconductor (SAMOS) memory, a precursor to electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and flash memory.{{cite web |title=Fujio Masuoka |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37322625100 |website=IEEE Explore |publisher=IEEE |access-date=17 July 2019}}{{cite journal|last1=Masuoka|first1=Fujio|title=Avalanche injection type mos memory|date=31 August 1972|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US3868187A/en |website=Google Patents}} In 1976, he developed dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) with a double poly-Si structure. In 1977 he moved to Toshiba Semiconductor Business Division, where he developed 1{{nbsp}}Mb DRAM.
Masuoka was excited mostly by the idea of non-volatile memory, memory that would last even when power was turned off. The EEPROM of the time took very long to erase. He developed the "floating gate" technology that could be erased much faster.
He filed a patent in 1980 along with Hisakazu Iizuka.{{Cite web |title= Semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing the same |work= US Patent 4531203 A |date= November 13, 1981 |url= https://patents.google.com/patent/US4531203 |access-date= March 20, 2017 }}
His colleague Shoji Ariizumi suggested the word "flash" because the erasure process reminded him of the flash of a camera.{{Cite book |title= Flash Memories: Economic Principles of Performance, Cost and Reliability |volume= 40 |author= Detlev Richter |doi= 10.1007/978-94-007-6082-0 |publisher= Springer Science and Business Media |date= 2013 |pages=5–6 |isbn= 978-94-007-6081-3 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=abfBAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |series= Springer Series in Advanced Microelectronics }}
The results (with capacity of only 8192 bytes) were published in 1984, and became the basis for flash memory technology of much larger capacities.{{Cite conference |author=F. Masuoka |author2=M. Asano |author3=H. Iwahashi |author4=T. Komuro |author5=S. Tanaka |book-title=1984 International Electron Devices Meeting |title=A new flash E2PROM cell using triple polysilicon technology |date= December 9, 1984 |pages= 464–467 |publisher= IEEE |doi= 10.1109/IEDM.1984.190752 |s2cid= 25967023 }}{{Cite web |title= A 256K Flash EEPROM using Triple Polysilicon Technology |work= IEEE historic photo repository |url= https://sscs.ieee.org/images/files/aboutus/history/ISSCC50/memory/memory_8.pdf |access-date= March 20, 2017 }} Masuoka and colleagues presented the invention of NOR flash in 1984,{{cite web |title=Toshiba: Inventor of Flash Memory |url=http://www.flash25.toshiba.com/ |website=Toshiba |access-date=20 June 2019 |archive-date=20 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190620160642/http://www.flash25.toshiba.com/ |url-status=dead }} and then NAND flash at the IEEE 1987 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco.{{cite conference |title=New ultra high density EPROM and flash EEPROM with NAND structure cell |last1=Masuoka |first1=F. |last2=Momodomi |first2=M. |last3=Iwata |first3=Y. |last4=Shirota |first4=R. |year=1987 |conference=IEDM 1987 |book-title=Electron Devices Meeting, 1987 International |publisher=IEEE |df=dmy |doi=10.1109/IEDM.1987.191485}} Toshiba commercially launched NAND flash memory in 1987.{{cite web |title=1987: Toshiba Launches NAND Flash |url=https://www.eweek.com/storage/1987-toshiba-launches-nand-flash |website=eWeek |date=April 11, 2012 |access-date=20 June 2019}}{{cite web |title=1971: Reusable semiconductor ROM introduced |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/reusable-semiconductor-rom-introduced/ |website=Computer History Museum |access-date=19 June 2019}} Toshiba gave Masuoka a few hundred dollar bonus for the invention, and later tried to demote him. But it was the American company Intel which made billions of dollars in sales on related technology. Toshiba's press department told Forbes that it was Intel that invented flash memory.
In 1988, a Toshiba research team led by Masuoka demonstrated the first gate-all-around (GAA) MOSFET (GAAFET) transistor. It was an early non-planar 3D transistor, and they called it a "surrounding gate transistor" (SGT).{{cite book |last1=Masuoka |first1=Fujio |last2=Takato |first2=H. |last3=Sunouchi |first3=K. |last4=Okabe |first4=N. |last5=Nitayama |first5=A. |last6=Hieda |first6=K. |last7=Horiguchi |first7=F. |title=Technical Digest., International Electron Devices Meeting |chapter=High performance CMOS surrounding gate transistor (SGT) for ultra high density LSIs |date=December 1988 |pages=222–225 |doi=10.1109/IEDM.1988.32796|s2cid=114148274 }}{{cite book |last1=Brozek |first1=Tomasz |title=Micro- and Nanoelectronics: Emerging Device Challenges and Solutions |date=2017 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-351-83134-5 |page=117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dAhEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA117}}{{cite book |last1=Ishikawa |first1=Fumitaro |last2=Buyanova |first2=Irina |title=Novel Compound Semiconductor Nanowires: Materials, Devices, and Applications |date=2017 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-315-34072-2 |page=457 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klk6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT457}}{{cite web |title=Company Profile |url=http://www.unisantis-el.jp/profile.htm |website=Unisantis Electronics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070222112935/http://www.unisantis-el.jp/profile.htm |archive-date=22 February 2007 |access-date=17 July 2019 }}{{cite book |last1=Yang |first1=B. |last2=Buddharaju |first2=K. D. |last3=Teo |first3=S. H. G. |last4=Fu |first4=J. |last5=Singh |first5=N. |last6=Lo |first6=G. Q. |last7=Kwong |first7=D. L. |title=ESSDERC 2008 - 38th European Solid-State Device Research Conference |chapter=CMOS compatible Gate-All-Around Vertical silicon-nanowire MOSFETs |date=2008 |pages=318–321 |doi=10.1109/ESSDERC.2008.4681762|isbn=978-1-4244-2363-7 |s2cid=34063783 }} He became a professor at Tohoku University in 1994.{{cite web |last= Fulford |first= Benjamin |title= Unsung hero |work= Forbes |date= June 24, 2002 |access-date= March 20, 2017 |url= https://www.forbes.com/global/2002/0624/030.html }}
Masuoka received the 1997 IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.{{cite web |title= IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award Recipients |website= Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) |url= http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/about/awards/pr/liebpr.html |archive-date= June 6, 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080606034316/http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/about/awards/pr/liebpr.html |access-date= March 20, 2017 }}
In 2004, Masuoka became the chief technical officer of Unisantis Electronics aiming to develop a three-dimensional transistor, based on his earlier surrounding-gate transistor (SGT) invention from 1988.
In 2006, he settled a lawsuit with Toshiba for ¥87m (about US$758,000).{{Cite news |title= Toshiba settles spat with Flash memory inventor: Boffin gets ¥87m but wanted ¥1bn |work= The Register |author= Tony Smith |date= July 31, 2006 |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/31/toshiba_settles_with_flash_memory_inventory/ |access-date= March 20, 2017 }}
He has a total of 270 registered patents and 71 additional pending patents. He has been suggested as a potential candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Robert H. Dennard who invented single-transistor DRAM.{{Cite news |title= Why Does the Nobel Prize Keep Forgetting Memory? |author= Kristin Lewotsky |work= EE Times |date= July 2, 2013 |url= http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1318797 |access-date= March 20, 2017 }}
Recognition
- 1997 - IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award
- 2007 - Medal with Purple Ribbon
- 2013 - Person of Cultural Merit
- 2016 - Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star
- 2018 - Honda Prize
References
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Category:21st-century Japanese inventors
Category:People from Takasaki, Gunma