STT-MRAM developer Avalanche Technology announced that it began to sample STT-MRAM chips. Avalanche's proprietary perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ) cells are manufactured in a high volume, low cost, standard CMOS 300mm process.

Those first sample chips are 32Mbit and 64Mbit in size, and offer an industry-standard SPI interface built on a 55nm-node foundry process. Avalanche is also offering its STT-MRAM technology (which they brand as AvRAM) under license as embedded memory for integrated SOC designs.

Yole Developpement released a new emerging-memory market report in which they try to asses the future of the memory market. Yose says that Phase-change memory (PCM) is pretty much dead, and the two main emerging memory technologies are MRAM and Resistive random Access Memory (ReRAM or RRAM).

While RRAM is very promising in the near future, with support from Micron (they plan to release RRAM chips in 2015) and Panasonic while other players are expected to react quickly. RRAM and STT-MRAM will compete in 2015-2016 in some standalone markets (such as embedded MCU, wearables and smart cards and the storage class memory for enterprise storage which will be the biggest market), and it's not clear yet which technology will be the most popular.

Avalanche Technology has been awarded new key patents in the areas of STT-MRAM technology, MRAM integration and manufacturing and perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junction (pMTJ) STT-MRAM. This follows eight new key patents awarded to Avalanche since the beginning of 2014.

Avalanche (founded in 2006 and based in California, US) developed patented Spin Programmable STT-MRAM (SPMEM) memory that uses a revolutionary proprietary spin current and voltage switching technology. The company wants to license their technology for embedded applications and also build discrete standalone memory devices. In July 2012 the company raised $30 million.

Last month we reported that Avalanche Technology has been awarded four key "milestone" patents for its STT-MRAM technology and solid-state storage array system design. Today the company announced that it has been awarded four new STT-MRAM patents in areas of Perpendicular STT-MRAM and MRAM Integration and Manufacturing. Avalanche has over 200 filed patents that covers the full spectrum from memory cell/circuit design and manufacturing to solid-state storage system development and deployment.

The company has been awarded three key patents in the area of Perpendicular STT-MRAM:

Avalanche Technology has been awarded four key "milestone" patents for its STT-MRAM technology and solid-state storage array system design. Avalanche has over 200 filed patents that covers the full spectrum from memory cell/circuit design and manufacturing to solid-state storage system development and deployment.

Avalanche (founded in 2006 and based in California, US) developed patented Spin Programmable STT-MRAM (SPMEM) memory that uses a revolutionary proprietary spin current and voltage switching technology. The company wants to license their technology for embedded applications and also build discrete standalone memory devices. In July 2012 the company raised $30 million.

Avalanche Technology announced that it has raised $30 million from existing investors (Vulcan Capital, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Thomvest Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures) and also from a new investor, VTB capital. Avalanche hopes that this investment will enable them to bring the first products into the market.

Avalanche will produce STT-MRAM chips based on their proprietary SPMEM (Spin Programmable Memory) technology. SPMEM uses a revolutionary spin current and voltage switching technology that enables "lower write current, smaller cell size and excellent scalability". The first products will use a 65 nm process, but the company says that their technology is scalable to 10 nm or even less.

Avalanche Technology and Integral Solutions International (ISI) have designed a Wafer Level Analyzer, the WLA-3000, to be used in STT-MRAM development.

The WLA-3000 includes specific hardware test modules including nS-range Pulse Generator that quickly measures switching currentse of MTJ devices in STT-MRAM as a function of Pulse Width. Using this Pulse Generator module, customers will be able to perform Error Rate, Switching Probability, Endurance Testing, and Read/Write Disturb analysis in a fraction of time as compared to other slower pulsers.

The WLA-3000 system is fully compatible with ISI’s FMRA-2008 Ferromagnetic Resonance Analyzer to offer the worlds most advanced and complete MTJ sensor analysis.

There's a new STT-RAM startup called Avalanche Technology (from California, US) that plans to commercialize 65nm standalone STT-RAM within 2 years.