MRAM-Info

Everspin looks for cash to expand operation

mram — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:25:31 +0000

There are reports that Everspin is looking for venture capital cash - as it wants to hire more people needed to expand operation. The company expects to ship over 5 million MRAM chips in 2012 to over 300 customers.

Last month Everspin announced a 300% growth in product shipment in 2011 with 250 new design wins, including Dell and LSI.

Everspin - Dell and LSI uses MRAM in RAID controllers

mram — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:21:09 +0000

Everspin issued a PR today announcing a 300% growth in product shipment in 2011 - with 250 new design wins. Everspin actually revealed this information last week at CES. Everspin says that the enterprise storage, server and networking segment was the fastest growing segment during the year (Everspin's "traditinal" markets are the industrial, energy and automotive and transportation markets).

The company further revealed that a number of leading vendors in this segment are using MRAM for critical data storage in RAID systems, servers and routers. Both Dell and LSI are using Everspin's chips in their RAID controllers.

Everspin to ship 5 million MRAM chips in 2012, have over 300 customers, 250 design wins

mram — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:19:25 +0000

Everspin had a presentation at CES 2012, in which they gave some interesting new details. The company has shipped over 4 million MRAM chips to date, and they expect to ship over 5 million in 2012 (this is based on design wins in 2011). They have over 300 customers and over 250 design wins. Everspin further says that currently there are over 100 MRAM products on the market.

You can view the entire slide show here

Interview with Barry Hoberman, Crocus' chief marketing officer

mram — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:25:50 +0000

Crocus is a startup company that develops MRAM technology - and recently they have announced several exciting advances in both their technology and their financing and production plans. We had the good chance to interview Barry Hoberman, Crocus' chief marketing officer.

Q: Barry, thanks for agreeing to answer our questions... The big story today is still RUSNANO's $125 million investment - announced in May 2011. Any updates on this deal? Have the construction begun on the Russian plant?

A: The site selection for our Russian plant (Crocus Nano Electronics) has been completed. The site contains an existing shell, which will be modified to support the clean room. Crocus expects to process wafers at this facility in 2013.

NVE sues Everspin over 3 MRAM patents

mram — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:26:29 +0000

NVE filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Everspin Technologies in the US. NVE claims that Everspin infringes three NVE MRAM patents. NVE seeks an injunction for Everspin to cease using NVE?s patented technology and provide compensation for damages caused by the infringement.

Everspin was spun-off Freescale, which was spun-off from Motorola, which was an NVE licensee. Back in 2006, when Freescale announced the first MRAM products, NVE tried to negotiate an agreement with them, it seems that after 5 and a half years the company decided to resort to litigation after all. Here's what Daniel Baker (NVE's CEO) said back then: "Based on a preliminary analysis, we believe Freescale's MRAM comes within the scope of claims in a number of NVE patents. We hope to negotiate a mutually beneficial agreement with Freescale to give them access to NVE intellectual property without having to resort to litigation"

Nonvolatile Memory Design: Magnetic, Resistive, and Phase Change

mram — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:46:46 +0000

Nonvolatile Memory Design: Magnetic, Resistive, and Phase Changing introduces three promising candidates: MRAM? phase-change memory and resistive random access memory.

The text illustrates the fundamental storage mechanism of these technologies and examines their differences from flash memory techniques. Based on the latest advances, the authors discuss key design methodologies as well as the various functions and capabilities of the three nonvolatile memory technologies.

Amazon link:

Nonvolatile Memory Design: Magnetic, Resistive, and Phase Change

The best of 2011 - top MRAM stories

mram — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:19:04 +0000

In the holidays and end-of-the-year spirit, here are the top 10 stories posted on MRAM-Info in 2011, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

Here's for an awesome 2012. May you all enjoy the holidays!

Crocus and SMIC to develop and produce MLU chips for automotive applications

mram — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:26:16 +0000

Crocus signed a technology development and wafer manufacturing agreement with China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC). The two companies will develop high-temperature Magnetic Logic Unit (MLU) technology targeted at automotive applications. The base wafer processing will be done by SMIC and these wafers will be further processed by Crocus at a facility that has yet to be built in Russia.

In addition the MLU technology could be licensed to SMIC for use in embedded chip applications and the two companies plan to market jointly smart cards made using TAS MLU and MRAM technology.

Samsung developed a perpendicular MTJ at 17nm

mram — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 07:52:50 +0000

Samsung developed a perpendicular MTJ element using 17nm technology - the world's smallest. This paves the way towards sub-20nm STT-MRAM. Up until now it was believed that to create such a small P-MTJ you will have to use a multi-layer structure and a rare-earth material for the ferromagnetic electrode. Samsung however used regular materials and structure (Ta/CoFeB/MgO/Ta) and optimized the oxidation process for the tunnel insulator (MgO).

By increasing the anisotropic energy on the joint interface the perpendicular magnetization of the ferromagnetic electrode was stabilized. Samsung reports a thermal stability factor of 34, a TMR ratio of 70% and a writing current of 44microampere with a perpendicular magnetization MTJ element whose cross-section area is 17 x 40nm. There is still room for improvement in the thermal stability factor in order to achieve over 1Gbit capacity at 20nm. This can be realized by making more improvements to the newly developed oxidation process for the tunnel insulator

Singulus sees increased MRAM activity by large semiconductor companies

mram — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:03:04 +0000

Singulus Technologies says that in the past couple of months they have noticed "increased activities in the area of MRAM memory by large semiconductor companies". The company expects MRAM development to progress and they consider themselves to be in an exceptional starting position for the upcoming growth market of MRAM memory. Their TIMARIS vacuum coating machines are already used by customers to develop MRAM wafers.