MRAM-Info: the MRAM experts

Researchers from TU Dresden developed a novel memory device that is based on a combination of an light emitting material and a metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitor.

The so-called pinMOS device is a non-volatile memory-capacitor with high repeatability and reproducibility. pinMOS devices can store several states, since charges can be added or removed in controllable amounts. This device can also be controlled (read and write) both electrically and optically. The light emitting material is an OLED device.

Everspin Technologies announced its financial results for Q3 2019 - with revenues of $9.2 million (down from $11.5 million in Q3 2018) and a net loss of $3.7 million (down from $5.6 million in Q3 2018). Everspin says that it achieved record STT-MRAM revenues.

At the end of the quarter, Everspin had $14.8 million in cash and equivalents. For the next quarter, it expects revenues to be between $9.3 million and $9.7 million.

Everspin Technologies announced that it has expanded its Toggle MRAM product portfolio, adding 2Mb, 8Mb and 32Mb capacities. Everspin's previous largest capacity Toggle MRAM was 16Mb, so the company now offers double the capacity to enable applications such as configuration storage, setup and data logging in embedded systems and more.

Everspin's new 8Mb and 32Mb memory devices are currently sampling and production will begin in Q1 2020. The 2Mb device will start sampling by the end of 2019, and production will also begin in Q1 2020.

Hprobe, a developer of testing equipment for magnetic devices, says its first Hprobe MRAM tester was qualified for use by a major Taiwan-based foundry for production use. Hprobe says that this is an important milestone and the company believes it is just the beginning of the global MRAM production ramp up.

Hprobe recently announced that it developed a new technology for ultra-fast (<1 second) testing of STT magnetic tunnel junctions under perpendicular magnetic field at above 2 Tesla.

Everspin Technologies announced that it has signed an IP cross-licensing agreement with Seagate Technology. Everspin will license specific Tunneling Magnetoresistance (TMR) patents to Seagate, while Seagate will license MRAM patents to Everspin.

Everspin says its IP portfolio is now stronger which will provide further protection to for its products and services, while Seagate will gain license to TMR IP which can be used in HDD head technology.

In August 2018 IBM announced that it adopted Everspin's 256Mb STT-MRAM chips in its enterprise SSD FlashSystem. Now IBM announced that it's latest FlashCore modules will use Everspins 1Gb STT-MRAM chips.

Using MRAM instead of DRAM memory enabled IBM to remove the relatively large supercapacitors (used to make the DRAM non-volatile) and so the company was able to reduced the size of its drives and switch to a standard 2.5-inch U.2 drive form factor.

Everspin Technologies announced that Cadence Design is now providing DDR4 Design IP (DIP) and Verification IP (VIP) support for Everspin’s 1 Gb STT-MRAM memory. Cadence has supported Everspin's STT-MRAM products since 2012. Everspin customers will now be able to request 1Gb MRAM-enabled IP and VIP for their Custom ASIC solutions.

Everspin’s 1 Gb STT-MRAM product family includes both 8bit and 16-bit DDR4 compatible (ST-DDR4) interface versions of the device and are available in a JEDEC-compliant BGA package.