February 2006

Shiny, black magnetic films, about the size of a penny and made by University of Alabama researchers, are central to a discovery of how to conduct resistance-free electricity in a manner previously thought impossible.
The research, conducted by scientists at Brown University, the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and UA, provides promising new leads for future electronics development and will publish in the Feb.16 issue of Nature.
Scientists have demonstrated the ability to sandwich the magnetic material, chromium dioxide, between two superconductors in a way that allows an electrical current to pass through the magnetic material, while retaining the resistance-free benefits of the superconductors.
The discovery could also assist researchers in their efforts to bring MRAM, a new type of experimental computer memory, to market. Unlike today’s standard memory, MRAM requires no extensive boot-up process and uses less power than conventional memory. It is also non-volatile, so if there’s a sudden power outage it would “remember” its state, preventing the computer user from losing data. Sensors, known as magnetic tunnel junction devices, are essential components in devices that might one day feature this next generation of computer memory.
The announcement in the Nature article could be another step toward making MRAM a reality for the average computer user. “If we are able to expand this and make magnetic tunnel junction devices, you will see extremely large changes in resistance,” Gupta said.
The experiments announced in Nature were performed under extremely low temperature conditions. Temperatures much lower than room temperature are the only known conditions under which superconductors provide no resistance. Gupta says achieving similar results under room temperature conditions would be industry-altering.

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Detecting biological agents, developing land mine discovery techniques and improving computer memory durability are among the projects in which some University of Houston engineering students will be involved through the National Science Foundation-Navy Civilian Service Fellowship Program.
Totaling more than $226,000 in direct costs, the NSF grant will support the fellowship and tuition-related costs for the students. The research will focus on the development of device structures, including nanomagnetic biosensors, magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and ultra-sensitive magnetic sensors for detecting land mines.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is interested in development of the nanomagnetic biosensors that can be utilized for detection of biological warfare agents, such as anthrax, as well as for civilian applications, such as food and water safety monitoring. The lab also is interested in the development of low-power, non-volatile computer memory that can withstand the effects of ionizing radiation and severe electromagnetic pulses, the by-products of nuclear explosion.

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Toshiba Corporation and NEC Corporation today announced that they have developed a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) that combines the highest density with the fastest read and write speed yet achieved. The new MRAM achieves a 16-megabit density and a read and write speed of 200-megabytes a second, and also secures low voltage operation of 1.8V.
A major challenge of MRAM development to date has been the acceleration of read speeds: the current drive circuit used to generate the magnetic field for writing degrades read operation from memory cells. The new MRAM has an improved circuit design that divides the current paths for reading and writing, realizing a faster read speed. It also reduces equivalent resistance in wiring by approximately 38% by forking the write current. These innovations together achieve a read and write speed of 200-megabytes a second and a cycle time of 34 nanoseconds — both the world's best performance for MRAM. This performance is underlined by a low operating voltage of only 1.8V, the ideal voltage for mobile digital products.
Alongside advances in performance, the new MRAM achieves advances in chip size. Toshiba and NEC have introduced the above mentioned technologies and optimized overall circuit design, achieving a chip that, at 78.7mm2, is approximately 30% smaller than its equivalent without the new circuit design. The new MRAM is the world's smallest in the 16-megabit era.

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NanoMarkets’ new report covers the markets for FRAM, MRAM, nanocrystalline memory, ovonic memory, nanotube memory, molecular memory, polymer memory, holographic memory and MEMS-based memory systems. The report identifies and quantifies the opportunities presented by these technologies and the timeframes in which they will emerge. The current state of development for each of these technologies is identified – are they in R&D, sampling, pilot production, full-scale production? – as are the markets for these products.

The report discusses the types of end product that will use each of these technologies and in what context –i.e., do they replace DRAM, SRAM, Flash, disk storage or some combination of these? Will they create entirely new products? The role of key semiconductor companies and OEMs is also discussed, including the progress of some of the smaller firms active in this space. Particular attention is paid to how many of the competing nanomemory solutions can succeed and which ones they are most likely to be. Detailed market forecasts are included, broken out by technology type and application served.

IBM posted some new MRAM research papers. This group of papers pertain to advances that have occurred over the past decade in related structures that combine magnetic metallic multilayer films with ultra-thin insulating layers (tunnel barriers), semiconducting layers, or both.

The structures are being developed for a diverse set of potential applications such as nonvolatile random access memory, improved magnetic sensors, and new RF and microwave frequency oscillators and radiation sources. The first six papers relate to the development of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) technology, based on the use of the magnetic tunnel junction. The next four deal with other aspects of spin transport electronics—spintronics, including especially spin transport in semiconductors.