MRAM-Info: the MRAM experts

Advanced aerospace and defense mission-critical electronics developer CAES announced that its radiation-hardened microelectronic devices are on their way to Jupiter, as part of NASA’s Lucy Mission.

Lucy’s payload is comprised of a high-resolution visible imager, an optical and near-infrared imaging spectrometer and a thermal infrared spectrometer. CAES says that the payloaduses two memory devices - 16 Mbit SRAM and 16 Mbit MRAM. The company's UT8MR2M8 chip (shown above), basedon Everspin's MRAM, is a high performance, space grade, 16Mb non-volatile MRAM device with proven flight heritage.

In March 2019 Samsung Electronics announced that it has started to mass produce its first embedded MRAM devices, made using the company's 28nm FD-SOI process. In early 2021 Samsung announced that it managed to improve the MTJ function of its MRAM, which makes it suitable for more applications, and today, at the company's 5th Annual Samsung Foundry Forum, Samsung provides more details on its MRAM roadmap.

Samsung says it is advancing its 14 nm process which will support flash-type embedded MRAM which enables increased write speed and density. Samsung targets applications such as micro controller units (MCUs), IoT and wearables for its next-gen eMRAM.

pMTJ STT-MRAM developer Avalanche Technology announced the immediate availability of new 64Mb Industrial parallel asynchronous x16-interface high-reliability MRAM Persistent SRAM (P-SRAM) memory devices. Avalanche's P-SRAM is based on the company's STT-MRAM technology

These new deices, the latest in Avalanche's family of Industrial data logging products, require half the board space, consume 1/4th the power and have 3 times the magnetic immunity of the equivalent density Toggle MRAM in Industrial applications.

pMTJ STT-MRAM developer Avalanche Technology announced that it has signed an agreement with LinearASICs Inc. to develop companion chiplets to offer a complete portfolio of Space Grade products with SPI and DDR interfaces, based on Avalanche's 1Gb Space Grade MRAM.

Avalanche's 2nd-Gen P-SRAM evaluation kit

LinearASICs will provide standalone serial interface chiplets such as Octal SPI (OSPI), as well as standard memory interface chiplets such as DDR. These chiplets will be available as standalone devices or integrated modules through Avalanche.

Embedded MRAM solutions are now entering the market, as leading foundries Samsung, TSMC and GlobalFoundries are scaling-up and ramping up their solutions.

This has been a slow process, as getting next-generation technologies into large fab is never an easy task, but we are finally seeing these foundries start to offer these technologies to their customers.

Everspin Technologies announced its financial results for Q2 2021. Revenues were $11.85 million, up 15% over Q1 2021 (and similar to Q2 2020), as STT-MRAM revenues jumped 56%. Net profit was $0.25 million, up from a loss of $0.46 million in Q1 2021 (and $1.29 million in Q2 2020).

At the end of Q2 2021, Everspin had $14.2 million in cash and equivalents, down from $15.5 million from the end of Q1 2021. Cash flow from operations was negative at $0.56 million. Looking into the next quarter, Everspin expects revenues to be in the range of $11.7 million to $12.8 million.

Researchers from Northwestern University, in collaboration with researchers from China, Italy and France, developed a new SOT-MRAM device structure that enables deterministic switching without any need for bias magnetic fields.

The new approach, unlike most earlier methods, can be scaled to large wafers with good uniformity, since it doesn't rely on having a structural asymmetry in the device. SOT-MRAM devices based on this structure could be faster and more energy-efficient than current designs.