October 2008

Grandis Awarded DARPA Contract To Develop STT-MRAM

Grandis announced that it has been awarded $6.0 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the initial phase of research to develop spin-transfer torque random access memory (STT-RAM) chips (for the 45 nm technology node and beyond). The total value of the effort, if all phases of the development program are completed, could be up to $14.7 million over four years.

The program will be carried out by a world-class collaboration between Grandis and the Universities of Virginia and Alabama. Under the direction of Principal Investigator Dr. Eugene Chen of Grandis, development work will cover STT materials and processes, STT architecture and circuit blocks, and ultimately test and verification of STT-RAM integrated memory arrays.
 
"The goal of this program is to deliver dense, high-performance, cost-effective universal memory chips employing STT technology," explained Dr. Devanand Shenoy, program manager in DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office. "Demanding specifications must be met by the materials and devices throughout the project to ensure delivery of ground-breaking technology."
 
Read the full story Posted: Oct 29,2008

Interview with Vincent Chun from Spin Transfer Technologies

In October 2008, I had the chance of interviewing Vincent Chun from Spin Transfer Technologies. Vincent Chun is the executive in charge at Spin Transfer Technologies. He is also a Director of Allied Minds, the investment firm that provided pre-seed funding for STT. Dr. Chun has 23 years of experience in science, technology, and corporate and entrepreneurial business management. He has a Ph.D. from MIT and an MBA from Kellogg. Spin Transfer Technologies was jointly formed by Allied Minds and New York University, using technology developed by Dr. Andrew Kent at NYU's Physics Department.

* Can you explain your STT-MRAM technology?

Spin Transfer Technologies MRAM innovation utilizes a deterministic mechanism to rotate the magnetization vector of a free magnetic layer. This is made possible by using an orthogonal orientation between the magnetization of the pinned and free magnetic layers. Because the magnetization reversal mechanism does not rely on thermodynamic processes to initiate the switching, there is no incubation delay and the switch time is very short, while the power consumption is very small compared to spin-transfer techniques used by others. We call our technology Orthogonal Spin Transfer MRAM or OST-MRAM for short.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 24,2008

NVE Corporation Reports Second Quarter Results - Still no MRAM news...

NVE reports their 2Q results. Total revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 increased 14% to $5.73 million from $5.00 million in the prior-year quarter. The revenue increase was due to a 13% increase in product sales and a 24% increase in contract research and development revenue. Net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 increased 40% to $2.30 million, or $0.48 per diluted share, compared to $1.64 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, for the prior-year quarter.

For the first six months of fiscal 2009, total revenue increased 9% to $10.6 million from $9.71 million for the first six months of fiscal 2008. The revenue increase was primarily due to a 10% increase in product sales to $9.42 million for the first half of fiscal 2009 from $8.58 million for the prior-year period. Net income for the first half of fiscal 2009 was $4.20 million, or $0.88 per diluted share compared to $3.23 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, for the first half of fiscal 2008.

"We are pleased with our strong quarterly results,'' said NVE President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel A. Baker, Ph.D. "Increases in product sales and contract research and development revenue drove record earnings.''

NVE is a leader in the practical commercialization of spintronics, a nanotechnology that relies on electron spin rather than electron charge to acquire, store and transmit information. The company manufactures high-performance spintronic products including sensors and couplers that are used to acquire and transmit data. NVE has also licensed its spintronic magnetoresistive random access memory technology, commonly known as MRAM.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 23,2008

Renesas says they'll release their MRAM products as early as 2010

Renesas claims to have already devised a 130-nm MRAM, which is a four-level-metal technology with a cell size of 0.81-micron2 and a standby current of zero.

But on its roadmap, the company will first commercialize an MRAM product, based on 90-nm technology that operates from 100-to-150-MHz. Slated for 2010, the device is geared for embedded memory applications in the company's core microcontroller market, said Katsuhiro Tsukamoto, president and chief operating officer at Renesas.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 14,2008

MRAM Related Invention Looking For Funding Or Buyout

We've been approached by "VCPartners" who have an MRAM related invention and are looking to sell it or get funding. The invention is titled "HIGH SPEED MAGNETIC RANDOM ACCESS ELECTRONICALLY CONTROLLED MEMORY" and here's their abstract:

There is presented the principally new magnetic core memory device (hereinafter MD) with use of new principle of memory control, which allows to create fully featured high-speed operative memory with random access on magnetic elements with several unique characteristics.
Feasibility and efficiency of the technology is proved experimentally. We have the working model of MD according to the invention. The invention exists in form of “know-now” and has no patent protection. We want to commercialize the invention together with interested companies or to sell it.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 02,2008