Belgium's Imec Unveils 3D CCD Memory Architecture, Combining DRAM Speed and NAND Density to Boost AI Inference Performance

Current AI accelerators often face the 'memory wall' bottleneck—computing power waits for data transmission, unable to process tokens continuously. Belgium's research institute Imec has proposed the world's first 3D Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) memory solution designed specifically for AI, aiming to combine DRAM's high speed with NAND flash's storage density to boost AI inference performance.

This architecture shortens data paths by vertically stacking memory chips and uses IGZO material to reduce leakage and support high-density integration, with lab charge transfer speeds exceeding 4GHz. However, it is still in the proof-of-concept stage; heat dissipation and layer expansion are major obstacles, making it hard to use in data center servers in the short term.