October 2011

Micron and the A*STAR Data Storage Institute (DSI) from Singapore announced that they will jointly develop STT-RAM. The two companies will invest in a 3-year joint-research program to develop high-density STT-MRAM devices.

Years ago Micron had an active MRAM program which was scrapped in October 2004. It's great to see them re-enter MRAM research. Scott DeBoer, Micron Vice President of Research and Development said that Micron is "actively working on multiple emerging memory development programs" - and this collaboration is seen as a way to "explore the potential of STT-MRAM"

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Colorado Boulder (CU) developed a new chip that uses microfluidics and magnetic switches to trap and transport magnetic beads. This low-power device may be useful for medical devices. This technology may also lead us towards "MRAM" chips used for molecular and cellular manipulation.

In the past, magnetic particle transport chips required continuous power and even cooling. This new technology manages to overcome the power and heat issues, and offers random-access two-dimensional control and non-volatile memory. The prototype chip uses 12 spin valves (commonly used as magnetic sensors in HD read heads) which are optimized for magnetic trapping. Pulses of electric current are used to switch individual spin valve magnets “on” to trap a bead, or “off” to release it, and thereby move the bead down a ladder formed by the two lines. The beads start out suspended in salt water above the valves before being trapped in the array.

HP says that their two terminal memristor (Resistive RAM) technology will be launched in 18 months - and will "start to take market share from flash memory". The company has 'big plans' for the new memory technology and are working with Hynix to launch the flash replacement chip in 2013. The company also plans to go after the DRAM market in 2014/2015 and later the SRAM market as well.

HP has over 500 patents on this technology alone - but it isn't the only company working on memristor devices - in fact Samsung has an even bigger team working on a similar project.

Crocus signed a joint technology development agreement and a mutual patent license agreement with IBM. They also signed a technology agreement - under which they will jointly develop semiconductor technology that combines Crocus' thermally assisted next generation Magnetic-Logic-Unit (MLU) technology with IBM's MRAM technology and processing capabilities.

MLU is a scalable evolution of Crocus' Thermally Assisted Switching (TAS) technology, and enables practical implementation of advanced magnetic logic and memory capabilities.

Researchers from the US Ames Laboratory discovered that rare-earth minerals dysprosium and gadolinium react strongly with graphene, while lead does not. They say that the RE minerals act like tiny magnets on Graphene - and are quite good magnets. This could lead to applications in MRAM, for example. 

Everspin is gearing up to introduce their upcoming STT-MRAM products in 2012, and the company announced that they have partnered with Cadence to provide ;memory model verification IP for these products. The new memory models are already available as part of the Cadence Verification IP Catalog. Everspin says they are working with several partners to ensure design-in tools are available as well.

STT-MRAM requires less current to write info into the memory cell, which leads to higher densities. Everspin's current highest-density Toggle-MRAM product is a 16Mb chip, and we expect their STT-MRAM products to be much higher in density, which will open new markets and applications.