Fujio Masuoka facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Fujio Masuoka (舛岡 富士雄)
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| Born | May 8, 1943 (age 82) |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Alma mater | Tohoku University |
| Known for | Flash memory NOR flash NAND flash GAAFET |
| Awards | IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Electrical engineering |
| Institutions | Toshiba Tohoku University Unisantis |
| Doctoral advisor | Jun-ichi Nishizawa |
Fujio Masuoka (舛岡 富士雄, Masuoka Fujio, born May 8, 1943) is a Japanese engineer. He is famous for inventing flash memory, which is used in many devices today. This includes both NOR flash and NAND flash types. He also invented an early type of 3D transistor called the gate-all-around (GAA) MOSFET (GAAFET). Masuoka has worked for Toshiba and Tohoku University. He is currently the chief technical officer (CTO) of Unisantis Electronics.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Fujio Masuoka was born on May 8, 1943. He went to Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. He earned his first degree in engineering in 1966. Later, he completed his doctorate degree in 1971.
Working at Toshiba
Masuoka started working at Toshiba in 1971. There, he created a type of memory called SAMOS. This was an early version of electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and flash memory. In 1976, he helped develop dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). He later worked on a 1-megabit DRAM.
Inventing Flash Memory
Masuoka was very interested in non-volatile memory. This is memory that keeps its information even when the power is off. Older types of memory, like EEPROM, took a long time to erase. Masuoka developed a new "floating gate" technology. This made it much faster to erase memory.
He filed a patent for his invention in 1980 with Hisakazu Iizuka. His colleague, Shoji Ariizumi, suggested calling it "flash." This was because the erasing process was very quick, like the flash of a camera.
The first flash memory had a small capacity of 8192 bytes. It was shown to the public in 1984. This invention became the base for all modern flash memory. Masuoka and his team introduced NOR flash in 1984. Then, they presented NAND flash in 1987. Toshiba started selling NAND flash memory in 1987. This invention became very important for many electronic devices.
Developing 3D Transistors
In 1988, a research team at Toshiba, led by Masuoka, showed the first gate-all-around (GAA) MOSFET (GAAFET) transistor. This was an early type of 3D transistor. They called it a "surrounding gate transistor" (SGT). This technology helps make computer chips smaller and more powerful.
Later Career and Recognition
Masuoka became a professor at Tohoku University in 1994. In 2004, he became the chief technical officer of Unisantis Electronics. He continued to work on developing three-dimensional transistors.
He has received many awards for his important inventions:
- 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
Masuoka has many registered patents, showing his many inventions. He has even been suggested as a possible candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physics.
See also
In Spanish: Fujio Masuoka para niños
