November 2017

Everspin reports its financial results for Q3 2017. Revenues reached a record $9 million (up from $7.2 million in Q3 2016 and up only slightly from last quarter), while the net loss grew to $5.4 million (up from $1.4 million in Q3 2016).

At the end of the quarter, Everspin had $17.8 million in cash and equivalents (down from $21.2 million at the end of Q2 2017). Everspin expects revenue in Q4 2017 to be in the range of $9.9 million to $10.3 million.

ActualTech Media RoadCast posted an interview with Spin Transfer Technologies (STT) CEO, Tom Sparkman, who explains the company's history, technology and business:

ActualTech Media also posted an interview with STT's VP of product, Andy walker, who gives an MRAM technology primer:

Tohoku University's Center for Innovative Integrated Electronic System (CIES) announced that its collaboration with Keysight Technology has led to the release of a new MRAM test platform product, the NX5730A.

Keysight's NX5730A is a high-throughput 1 ns Pulsed IV memory test solution. Keysight says that this solution is a unique dedicated system for characterizing emerging devices such as magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) on silicon wafers, accelerating the efficiency of device characterization and memory production testing.

Researchers from UC Berkeley and UC Riverside developed a new ultra-fast method for electrically controlling magnetism in certain metals. The researchers say that this could be applied to future MRAM chips, to provide much faster write speeds and more efficient operation.

The researchers built special circuits to study how magnetic metals respond to electrical pulses as short as a few picoseconds. The researchers found that in a magnetic alloy made up of gadolinium and iron, these fast electrical pulses can switch the direction of the magnetism in less than 10 picoseconds, orders of magnitude faster than any other MRAM technology.

Veeco developed an Ion Beam Etch system for MRAM production, and during the company's Q3 2017 conference call it updated on the new system.

Veeco says that its Ion Beam technology is well suited for etching the multilayer magnetic stack used in MRAM chips. Veeco already placed systems at multiple customers and expect high volume manufacturing to start next year for embedded memory applications.