NVE notified of MRAM patent grant

NVE Corporation has been notified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of the expected grant today of two patents relating to spintronics.

The first patent is number 7,390,584 and titled "Spin dependent tunneling devices having reduced topological coupling." Spin-dependent tunnel junctions, also known as magnetic tunnel junctions or tunneling magnetic junctions, are spintronic structures that can form the heart of spintronic magnetoresistive random access memory technology, commonly known as MRAM.

The second patent is number 7,391,091 and titled "Magnetic particle flow detector," and is related to spintronic biosensor technology, which could be used in laboratory-on-a-chip systems.
Read the full story Posted: Jun 24,2008

NVE Corporation Reports 4Q Results, no MRAM news

Total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 33% to $6.05 million from $4.57 million in the prior-year quarter. The revenue increase was primarily due to a 35% increase in product sales to $5.67 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 from $4.19 million in the prior-year quarter. Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 45% to $2.25 million, or $0.47 per diluted share, compared to $1.55 million, or $0.33 per diluted share, for the prior-year quarter. Gross margin was 69% of revenue, operating margin 55%, pretax margin 59%, and net margin 37% for the quarter.

For fiscal 2008, total revenue increased 25% to $20.5 million from $16.5 million for the prior year, driven by a 28% increase in product sales to $18.5 million from $14.4 million for fiscal 2007. Net income for fiscal 2008 increased 50% to $7.19 million, or $1.51 per diluted share compared to $4.78 million, or $1.00 per diluted share, for fiscal 2007. For fiscal 2008 gross margin was 67%, operating margin 49%, pretax margin 54%, and net margin 35%.

"We are pleased to report record revenue and net income for the quarter and fiscal year," said NVE President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel A. Baker, Ph.D. "Increases in product sales and operating margins drove an extraordinary quarter and fiscal year.

"In the past fiscal year we introduced new world-class spintronic products, expanded our production capacity, and were granted four U.S. patents," said Baker. "We enter fiscal 2009 with products that are in demand, an excellent intellectual property portfolio, and a solid balance sheet."
Read the full story Posted: May 08,2008

NVE Corporation Reports 3Q results, no MRAM news

Product sales for the quarter increased 25% over the prior-year quarter to $4.25 million from $3.40 million. Total revenue, consisting of product sales and contract research and development revenue, increased 23% to $4.77 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 from $3.86 million in the prior-year quarter. Net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 62% to $1.70 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, compared to $1.05 million, or $0.22 per share, for the prior-year quarter.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2008, product sales increased 25% to $12.83 million from $10.23 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2007. Total revenue increased 22% to $14.48 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2008 from $11.90 million for the prior-year period. Net income for the nine months of fiscal 2008 was $4.93 million, or $1.04 per diluted share compared to $3.23 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, for the first nine months of fiscal 2007.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 24,2008

NVE Founder Wins IEEE Noble Award for MRAM

NVE Corporation announced today that its founder, James M. Daughton, Ph.D., has been named a 2008 co-recipient of the prestigious IEEE Daniel E. Noble Award.
 
The award is sponsored by the Motorola Foundation and presented by the IEEE, which is considered the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology. According to the IEEE, the award is "for fundamental contributions to the development of magnetoresistance devices for non-volatile, high density, random access memory."
 
Daughton founded NVE in 1989 and was Chairman and CEO for most of its history. From 2001 until 2006 he was the company's Chief Technology Officer. Daughton has published approximately 80 papers and been granted approximately 40 U.S. patents. His inventions are at the heart of NVE's technology portfolio.
 
Much of Daughton's MRAM work has been in collaboration with Arthur V. Pohm, Ph.D., an Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University and longtime NVE employee. Daughton and Pohm's recent inventions relate to next-generation MRAM technologies including magneto-thermal MRAM and spin-momentum transfer MRAM.
 
Magnetothermal MRAM uses a combination of ultra-fast magnetic fields and heat pulses, both from electrical current. Spin-momentum transfer is a method of changing the spin of storage electrons directly with an electrical current rather than an induced magnetic field. Both technologies may have the potential to reduce the energy required to write data and allow reducing memory cell size while maintaining thermal stability.
 
The Daniel E. Noble Award presentation is scheduled for September 2008. Co-recipients are Saied Tehrani of Freescale, Inc. and Stuart Parkin of IBM.
Read the full story Posted: Dec 04,2007

NVE Corporation Reports Second Quarter Results, no MRAM news

Product sales for the quarter increased 14% over the prior-year quarter to $4.31 million from $3.78 million. Total revenue, consisting of product sales and contract research and development revenue, increased 14% to $5.00 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2008 from $4.40 million in the prior-year quarter. Net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 28% to $1.64 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, compared to $1.28 million, or $0.27 per share, for the prior-year quarter.

For the first six months of fiscal 2008, product sales increased 26% to $8.58 million from $6.83 million for the first six months of fiscal 2007. Total revenue increased 21% to $9.71 million for the first half of fiscal 2008 from $8.03 million for the prior-year period. Net income for the first half of fiscal 2008 was $3.23 million, or $0.67 per diluted share compared to $2.18 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, for the first half of fiscal 2007.
Read the full story Posted: Oct 18,2007

NVE Notified of Grant of Magnetothermal MRAM Patent

NVE Corporation announced today that it has been notified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of the expected grant of a patent relating to magnetothermal Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM).

NVE has been notified that the patent, titled "Magnetic Memory Layers Thermal Pulse Transitions," will issue today. The patent is number 7,266,013 and covers inventions by Dr. James M. Daughton and Dr. Arthur V. Pohm. The grant is in addition to similarly-titled patent numbers 7,177,178 and 7,023,723.

MRAM is an integrated-circuit memory which is fabricated with nanotechnology and which uses electron spin to store data. MRAM may have the potential to combine many of the best attributes of different types of semiconductor memories.

Magnetothermal MRAM is a next-generation MRAM technology that uses a combination of ultra-fast magnetic fields and heat pulses, both from electrical current, to reduce the energy required to write data and allow reduction of the memory cell size while maintaining thermal stability.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 04,2007

NVE Corporation Reports First Quarter Results

Product sales for the quarter increased 40% over the prior-year quarter to $4.27 million from $3.05 million. Total revenue, consisting of product sales and contract research and development revenue, increased 30% to $4.71 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2008 from $3.64 million in the prior-year quarter. Net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 78% to $1.59 million, or $0.33 per diluted share, compared to $891,806, or $0.19 per share, for the prior-year quarter.

"We are pleased to report record net income for the quarter driven by strong product sales," said NVE President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel A. Baker, Ph.D.
Read the full story Posted: Jul 19,2007

NVE Notified of Grant of Thermomagnetically Assisted Spin-Momentum Transfer MRAM Patent

NVE announced today that it has been notified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of the expected grant of a patent relating to magneto-thermal and spin-momentum transfer MRAM inventions.

NVE has been notified that the patent, titled `Thermomagnetically Assisted Spin-Momentum-Transfer Switching Memory' will be issued today. The patent is number 7,230,844 and is the grant of a patent under the application published by the USPTO as number 2006-0077707.

Magnetothermal MRAM uses a combination of ultra-fast magnetic fields and heat pulses, both from electrical current. Spin-momentum transfer is a method of changing the spin of storage electrons directly with an electrical current rather than an induced magnetic field. Both technologies may have the potential to reduce the energy required to write data and allow reduction of the memory cell size while maintaining thermal stability.

The grant brings NVE's U.S. patent total to 42. The company has more than 100 patents worldwide issued, pending, or licensed from others.
Read the full story Posted: Jun 12,2007

NVE Corporation Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year Results

Product sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 increased 50% over the prior-year quarter to $4.19 million from $2.80 million. Total revenue, consisting of product sales and contract research and development revenue, increased 31% to $4.57 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 from $3.48 million in the prior-year quarter. Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 increased 151% to $1.55 million, or $0.33 per diluted share, compared to $619,744, or $0.13 per share, for the prior-year quarter.

No news regarding MRAM... 

Read the full story Posted: May 03,2007

NVE Notified of Grant of VMRAM Patent

NVE Corporation announced today that it has been notified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of the expected grant of a patent relating to Vertical Transport Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (VMRAM).

NVE has been notified that the patent, titled "Radial field generating selection conductor device," will be issued today. The patent is number 7,193,286 and is the grant of a patent under the application published by the USPTO as number 2006-0022238. The new patent relates to addressing Vertical Transport MRAM arrays.

The co-inventors were an NVE researcher and Professor Jian-Gang Zhu of Carnegie Mellon University, and the patent is assigned to NVE.
Read the full story Posted: Mar 20,2007