

NAND flash gets baked, lives longer - 001sky
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/11/nand-flash-gets-baked-lives-longer/

======
richardjordan
Interesting, though years since I did any materials science so just reading as
a layman. Still, I'm surprised this wasn't tried before. It's been years since
I read the book Inside Intel but I do seem to recall that an extra dose of
cooking led to dramatic drops in failure rates for their chips. I suppose I'd
have thought that'd lead folks in the space to try all kinds of things like
this all the time.

------
PakG1
Did I read 800C properly? Even if it's only for a minuscule moment, isn't that
dangerous? Especially if there are environmental factors that can
unpredictably affect the process?

After years of being conditioned to try to cool my hardware as much as
possible, it's a bit unsettling that I'd want to heat it up, especially at
such a high temperature, even if it's for only a tiny moment.

Excuse me for my ignorance, but I'd like someone to explain to me why this is
OK.

~~~
ars
It's deep inside the chip - there is probably insufficient energy for it to
still be hot once it makes its way out of the package (even if it were to get
stuck in the on state).

However, 800C is really hot - there's probably a reason this is not a shipping
product yet.

If I were making one of these I'd charge a capacitor, then use the energy in a
burst to get really hot. This smooths out the power draw and makes it
completely impossible for it to stay stuck on.

