December 2011

In the holidays and end-of-the-year spirit, here are the top 10 stories posted on MRAM-Info in 2011, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

1. Toshiba report STT-MRAM advances, expects gigabit chips within 3-4 years (Jul 6)
2. Updates from Spingate, working on a 4Gbit pS-MRAM chip design (Mar 31)
3. BMW uses new automotive-temperate Everspin MRAM in their S-1000RR super bike (Feb 28)
4. Crocus develops their 2nd-gen MRAM tech, to produce 90nm MRAM chips in Russia? (Apr 28)
5. Everspin: we shipped over 1.5 million MRAM chips, will sell over 4.5 million in 2011 (Mar 8)
6. NVE reports on MRAM research and plans (Jan 21)
7. Rusnano $125 million MRAM investment with Crocus confirmed (May 17)
8. Toshiba and Hynix to co-develop and produce MRAM products (Jul 13)
9. Everspin sees rapid growth in MRAM sales, expands distribution network (May 26)
10. Researchers develop faster MRAM technology, seek to commercialize it (Mar 9)

Here's for an awesome 2012. May you all enjoy the holidays!

Crocus signed a technology development and wafer manufacturing agreement with China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC). The two companies will develop high-temperature Magnetic Logic Unit (MLU) technology targeted at automotive applications. The base wafer processing will be done by SMIC and these wafers will be further processed by Crocus at a facility that has yet to be built in Russia.

In addition the MLU technology could be licensed to SMIC for use in embedded chip applications and the two companies plan to market jointly smart cards made using TAS MLU and MRAM technology.

Samsung developed a perpendicular MTJ element using 17nm technology - the world's smallest. This paves the way towards sub-20nm STT-MRAM. Up until now it was believed that to create such a small P-MTJ you will have to use a multi-layer structure and a rare-earth material for the ferromagnetic electrode. Samsung however used regular materials and structure (Ta/CoFeB/MgO/Ta) and optimized the oxidation process for the tunnel insulator (MgO).

By increasing the anisotropic energy on the joint interface the perpendicular magnetization of the ferromagnetic electrode was stabilized. Samsung reports a thermal stability factor of 34, a TMR ratio of 70% and a writing current of 44microampere with a perpendicular magnetization MTJ element whose cross-section area is 17 x 40nm. There is still room for improvement in the thermal stability factor in order to achieve over 1Gbit capacity at 20nm. This can be realized by making more improvements to the newly developed oxidation process for the tunnel insulator