December 2015

2015 is pretty much over - and this has been another year of slow growth for the MRAM industry. Here are the top 10 stories posted on MRAM-Info in 2015, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

1. Toshiba shows a new STT-MRAM test chip that consumes about 80% less power than SRAM memory (Mar 7)
2. Keysight Technologies to launch an STT-MRAM test solution product developed in collaboration with Tohoku and the CIES (Mar 17)
3. E2v launches a 32Mb stacked-package MRAM device (Mar 12)
4. STT-MRAM MTJ cells can be used to mimick the human brain's synapses (Apr 25)
5. Everspin appoints a new chief financial officer (Apr 28)
6. Yole sees STT-MRAM as the most suitable technology to start replacing DRAM in 2018 (Feb 8)
7. Avalanche Technology starts to sample 32/64 Mbit STT-MRAM chips (Jul 3)
8. Crocus raised $21 million, has over 250 sensor customers, will break even in Q1 2016 (Jun 19)
9. Everspin raised $29 million from Global Foundries, Western Digital and others (Jan 26)
10. Everspin announces an MRAM-based Arduino-shield evaluation module (Feb 25)

In November 2013, Crocus Technology filed an Inter Partes Review petition to the US PTO, claiming that Spin Transfer Technologies's US patent #6,980,469 describes a technology already used in prior art, in particular in the patent portfolio of Crocus. In April 2014, the USPTO issued a preliminary decision in favor of Crocus' petition.

Crocus now says that it has prevailed in the Inter Partes Review of the patent. Crocus petitioned to cancel all or part of the patent as Crocus’s patent portfolio includes a patent on this technology that makes advanced non-volatile memory blocks more efficient. After careful consideration, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the US Patent and Trademark Office issued its final written decision cancelling or finding unpatentable all but three claims of the ’469 patent.