Taiwan-based Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) announced an agreement with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to co-develop Voltage-Control MRAM (VC-MRAM) technologies.

ITRI says that VC-MRAM is a type of SOT-MRAM that offers improved performance - 50% higher writing speed and 75% less energy consumption. VC-MRAM is said to be ideal for AIoT and automotive industry applications. The partnership is expected to strengthen the link between both parties and accelerate the R&D and industrialization of new memory technologies.

Everspin Technologies announced its financial results for Q4 2021. Revenues in the quarter came in at $18.2 million (up from $14.8 million in Q3 2021,and $10 million in Q4 2020). During the quarter, the company recognized $3.95 million in the IP monetization deal it signed in Q3 2021. The company reports Q4 positive net income of $3.7 million. Cash and equivalents at the end of the quarter increased to $21.4 million (up from $14.6 million in the end of 2020).

Everspin has seen excellent Toggle MRAM shipments and revenue, but the company's STT-MRAM was flat as its largest customer was also impacted by supply constraints (not related to Everspin). The company expects STT-MRAM revenue to remain flat for the new couple of quarters. It expects Q1 2022 revenues to be in the range of $13.4 million to $14.2 million.

Researchers from National Taiwan University in collaboration with TSMC developed a new SOT-MRAM device structure, that features sizable orbital currents. This research promises a pathway for enhancing SOT-MRAM performance by harnessing both the conventional spin currents and the emergent orbital currents.

The new device is based on 3d light transition metals (such as V and Cr) that are incorporated into the classical spin Hall metal Pt. The Pt-Cr alloy enhances the charge-to-spin conversion efficiency which can realize high spin-orbital Hall conductivity, beyond the conventional spin Hall limit.

Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology developed an ultrahigh-efficiency SOT magnetization switching in fully sputtered BiSb(Co/Pt) multilayers with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA).

The new device offers a large spin Hall angle and high electrical conductivity, thus satisfying all the three requirements for SOT-MRAM implementation. The researchers managed to achieve robust SOT magnetization at a low current density despite the large PMA field.

Hprobe, a developer of testing equipment for magnetic devices, announced a significant order from a tier-1 semiconductor manufacturer in Korea for a wafer-level magnetic tester.

Hprobe's IBEX platform is compatible with 200mm and 300mm automated wafer probers, and is dedicated to testing MRAM magnetic tunnel junctions, bit cells based on STT-MRAM, SOT-MRAM, and Voltage Controlled (VC-MRAM) technologies.

Researchers from Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), have demonstrated what they say is the world’s first in-memory computing based on MRAM, targeting next-generation AI chips.

The researchers explain that In-Memory computing is a new paradigm that seeks to perform both data storage and data computing in a memory network. In such a computing system, a large amount of data, stored in the memory network, can be executed in a highly parallel manner. Power consumption in such systems is substantially reduced.

Researchers from the University of Arizona developed a new pMTJ structure that exhibits high magnetoresistance, strong retention and is likely to achieve fast switching times as well.

The new structure uses a multi-interface free layer (MIFL) which incorporate multiple materials with different properties. The researchers used a ferromagnetic CoFeB layer with nonmagnetic Mo or MgO layers. The magnetoresistance can be controlled by changing the thickness of the CoFeB layer. The researchers managed to demonstrate a magnetoresistance of over 200%.

2021 is soon over - and it was another year dominated by the global pandemic - but also with increased MRAM production, adoption and developments.

Here are the top 10 stories posted on MRAM-Info in 2021, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

1. TSMC shows its eMRAM technology roadmap (May 6)
2. Samsung improves its MRAM performance, will expand its target applications (Feb 5)
3. New SOT-MRAM device structure can be scaled up and is highly efficient (Aug 9)
4. Avalanche announces new 64Mb industrial x16-interface STT-MRAM memory devices (Sep 29)
5. Orthogonal Spin Transfer MRAM developer Spin Memory liquidates (Jul 15)
6. Everspin reports its financial results for Q1 2021 (May 7)
7. Everspin reported its preliminary Q4 2020 and full-year 2020 financial results (Mar 1)
8. Researchers developed a promising antiferromagnetic MRAM device structure (Jun 27)
9. Lucid Motors adopted Everspin's MRAM in its Lucid Air all-electric sedan (Jun 16)
10. Researchers use stochastic MRAM elements to create highly efficient AI devices (Jul 7)

Renesas Electronics announced that it has developed two new technologies that reduce the energy and voltage application time for the write operation of STT-MRAM chips.

On a 20-Mbit test chip with embedded MRAM memory cell array in a 16 nm FinFET logic process, a 72% reduction in write energy and a 50% reduction in the voltage application time were confirmed.

Researchers from Tohoku University managed to fabricate the world's smallest STT-MRAM MTJ, at 2 nm. In addition, the researchers demonstrated fast switching (3.5 ns) in sub-five-nm STT-MRAM MTJs.

The new MTJ were developed using a new multilayered ferromagnetic structure that can engineer characteristic relaxation time, which governs the magnetization dynamics in the ns regime.