MRAM news and resources

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 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

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 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"

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):

1. Toshiba report STT-MRAM advances, expects gigabit chips within 3-4 years (Jul 6)
2. Updates from Spingate, working on a 4Gbit pS-MRAM chip design (Mar 31)
3. BMW uses new automotive-temperate Everspin MRAM in their S-1000RR super bike (Feb 28)
4. Crocus develops their 2nd-gen MRAM tech, to produce 90nm MRAM chips in Russia? (Apr 28)
5. Everspin: we shipped over 1.5 million MRAM chips, will sell over 4.5 million in 2011 (Mar 8)
6. NVE reports on MRAM research and plans (Jan 21)
7. Rusnano $125 million MRAM investment with Crocus confirmed (May 17)
8. Toshiba and Hynix to co-develop and produce MRAM products (Jul 13)
9. Everspin sees rapid growth in MRAM sales, expands distribution network (May 26)
10. Researchers develop faster MRAM technology, seek to commercialize it (Mar 9)

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

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.