MRAM-Info: the MRAM experts

pMTJ STT-MRAM developer Avalanche Technology announced its 2nd-generation serial non-volatile discrete MRAM memory family. The SPnvSRAM family offers 1 Mb to 32 Mb densities at extended-temperature industrial-grade specifications. Avalanche says that these devices, available in low pin count, small package options, are ideal for a broad range of industrial, automotive and consumer applications.

Avalanche's 2-Gen SPnvSRAM is offered in 108-MHz Quad Serial Peripheral Interface (QSPI) performance as a byte addressable memory thus eliminating the need for software device drivers.

SMART Modular Technologies has launched its new nvNITRO U.2 Storage Accelerator that features Everspin's STT-MRAM technology. The nvNITRO is ideally suited for synchronous logging applications such as those used for financial trading.

SMART's nvNITRO U.2 Storage Accelerator uses a standard NVMe interface that is 1.2.1 compliant and provides less than six microseconds of industry-leading low latency access with persistence so that all logging data is safe. The U.2 form factor brings with it the advantage of being hot-swappable.

Spin Memory (previously Spin Transfer Technologies) announced that is has signed a licensing agreement with Arm. The license includes Spin Memory's Endurance Engine technology and IP - and as part of the agreement Arm and Spin memory will also work together to create SRAM-class MRAM design solutions.

Spin Memory's Endurance Engine is a design architecture that is used to develop embedded MRAM solutions.

Everspin announced its financial results for Q3 2018 - revenues increased 28% year-over-year to reach $11.5 million, and the company's net loss was $ 5.6 million.

Everspin says it is pleased with the progress it made in the quarter in both its Toggle MRAM and STT-MRAM product lines. The company remains on track with its planned 1Gb STT-MRAM chip sample in December 2018.

Everspin announced that it has entered into a multi-year partnership with Malaysia-based SilTerra and to establish a Toggle MRAM production center in Malaysia. Bosch Sensortec, a licensee of Everspin's TMR sensor IP is also a part of this agreement.

SilTerra and Everspin's new Malaysian production center will start initial production in 2020. Everspin says that it is seeing growing demand for its Toggle MRAM products in the industrial, computing, medical, and transportation markets. Everspin will continue to produce Toggle MRAM and TMR sensor products at its own manufacturing line in Chandler, AZ, USA.

Synopsys announced that it is set to add support for embedded MRAM designs to its DesignWare STAR Memory System solution. The new solution will offer new eMRAM memory built-in self-test (BIST), repair, and diagnostic capabilities, initially for GlobalFoundries eMRAM on its 22FDX process.

The STAR Memory System's new algorithms target failure mechanisms of embedded MRAM and other types of non-volatile memories during production and in-field test. Support for multiple background patterns and complex addressing modes accelerates automated test equipment (ATE) vector generation, resulting in the highest test coverage for eMRAM, maximized manufacturing yield, and improved system-on-chip (SoC) reliability.

Intel says it will present a new paper detailing its MRAM research at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in early December 2018. This is the first time we hear of any MRAM R&D at Intel which is great news, even if it just a research paper.

Intel has apparently successfully integrated embedded MRAM into the company's 22nm FinFET CMOS technology on full 300mm wafers. The magnetic tunnel junction-based memory cells are built from dual MgO magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) separated by a CoFeB-based layer in a 1 transistor-1 resistor (1T-1R) configuration in the interconnect stack. Intel has manufactured a 7.2Mbit array with reported data retention figures in excess of 10 years and write endurance of greater than 10^6 cycles.