Freescale Semiconductor’s MRAM cell is four times smaller than a six transistor SRAM cell, giving it a significant potential as a replacement for mid-range performance SRAM, according to Dr Saied Tehrani, director for MRAM technology at Freescale.

“The reason why our cell is small compared to other MRAM cells is because we use one transistor and one magnetic tunnel junction (MJT) and the MJT sits on the top of the transistor,” Tehrani told Electronics Weekly at the Freescale Technology Forum in Orlando, Florida last week.
Freescale’s 4Mbit MRAM has an access time of 35ns for both the read and the write making it competitive with mid-range SRAM. It is positioned, and priced, to be a replacement for battery-backed SRAM.

It is not fast enough to compete with high-speed SRAM which has sub-10ns access times. "It can't replace Level One cache", said Tehrani.

Dr. Daniel A. Baker, NVE's CEO commented in NVE's conference call: "On July 10 Freescale announced that the first commercial MRAM device was in volume production. This is an impressive accomplishment by a talented Freescale team, and we congratulate them. It is also gratifying for Dr. Jim Daughton, our founder and an MRAM pioneer who made many inventions in the field and had a vision for MRAM...."

"We are proud NVE's role in MRAM's development and we look forward to a bright future. Based on a preliminary analysis, we believe Freescale's MRAM comes within the scope of claims in a number of NVE patents. We hope to negotiate a mutually beneficial agreement with Freescale to give them access to NVE intellectual property without having to resort to litigation. As we have said before, we cannot predict the possible timing of agreements, but we are confident of the strength of NVE's MRAM inventions and patent portfolio."

Interesting article about Freescale's recent MRAM announcement, and what it really means for the company.
"Sometimes being the first to market with a near-revolutionary new technology warrants hero status. But perhaps status is all it warrants."
For now, Freescale will sell MRAM to niche markets like the auto industry, which will use it for simple dashboard-type applications like controlling heating and cooling systems or for use in "smart" airbags, explains Semico's Merritt. MRAM will also be useful to the Department of Defense since it isn't susceptible to the radiation problems in deep space that other types of chips experience, he says.

Read more here 

Freescale started shipping of the world's of its 4 Mbit MRAM chip. The MR2A16A is now entering commercial production, with small-volume orders priced at $25 per chip.

The commercial production of Freescale's MRAM chips is a great breakthough, and it follows two years of product sampling. The read/write speed of these chips is 35 ns, and they are based on a 0.18-micro process. The cell size of the 4Mbit chip is 1.26 square micron. 

Freescale Semiconductor Inc. has been chasing a breakthrough memory technology for many years. It's called MRAM, or magnetic random-access memory, and some experts say the technology has the potential to combine the density of conventional computer memory, or DRAM; the speed of SRAM, or static random-access memory; and the nonvolatility of flash. Freescale may be nearing a significant milestone with MRAM. Analyst Doug Freedman with American Technology Research reported last week that the chip maker had just completed an extensive qualification process for MRAM, which indicates it could be on the verge of making commercial chips with the process.
"This could be a big market opportunity," Freedman wrote. Freescale says it will make an announcement on MRAM in the next few weeks

This story appeared in Statesman, but it's no longer available.

Freescale Semiconductor Inc. presented an MRAM that uses magnesium oxide, rather than an aluminum material, in the write layer. Saied Tehrani, director of MRAM technology, said Freescale will replace aluminum oxide with magnesium oxide, which will improve the bit resistance during the write cycle. Also, the tunneling layer can be thinned slightly.

A non-volatile memory technology which is denser, faster and more cost-effective than conventional flash memory technology is closer to production, due to the continued efforts of Freescale Semiconductor to optimize the properties of silicon nanocrystals. Freescale has manufactured the world's first 24-megabit (Mbit) memory array based on silicon nanocrystals, a major step toward replacing conventional floating gate-based flash memories.
The 24-Mbit memory array technology was manufactured at Freescale's Austin Technology & Manufacturing Center using 90-nanometer (nm) CMOS bulk technology. The production of a working 24-Mbit memory device requires that silicon nanocrystals be deposited with excellent uniformity and integration approaches that keep the nanocrystal properties intact during subsequent processing. In successfully achieving this, Freescale has overcome major challenges to introducing this technology into production.
Silicon nanocrystal memories are part of an advanced class of memory technologies called thin-film storage. They are more scaleable than conventional floating gate-based flash technology, as their tunnel oxide thickness can be reduced without impacting data retention. The charge is stored on isolated nanocrystals and is lost only from those few nanocrystals that align with defects in the tunnel oxide - while the same defects would result in significant charge loss from a conventional floating gate. A thinner tunnel oxide permits lower-voltage operation, substantially reducing the memory module area needed to generate the bit-cell programming voltages, and allowing for significant wafer processing simplifications and manufacturing cost reductions. The combination of higher bit density and reduced cost translates to lower cost per bit to embed silicon nanocrystal memories. Freescale expects significant reductions in cost per bit of silicon nanocrystal thin-film storage memories.

Read more here

Silicon Laude, a startup fabless semiconductor company, has developed an integrated circuit comprising two 8051 8-bit microcontrollers and a cryptographic engine that can interface directly with Freescale’s MR2A16A 4-Mbit (256k x16) MRAMs.

The chip, packaged in a 144-ball FBGA, is suitable for such applications as financial data terminals, personal identification number (PIN) pads, and similar applications, the company said. A lower-cost, non-secure SL80C051-2002 device is also available for general-purpose 8051 multi-controller applications that do not require such a high level of security.

Both devices are based on a parallel pipeline architecture that is capable of instruction execution speeds of up to 25-MIPs when used with one or more 20-nanosecond access time, Freescale MR2A16A MRAMs.
Silicon Laude, formed in 2005, is accepting orders now for delivery in the first quarter of 2006. The SL80C051-2001 is priced at $60.00 per device, while the SL80C051-2002 is priced at $45.00, both in 100-unit quantities. The company said it is prepared to consider customizing the dual-8051 for orders of 1000 units or more.

Freescale Semiconductor Inc., the semiconductor company formed from Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector, has cast its 4Mbit MRAM as a standard product and has been sampling the part to customers, according to the company.

Freescale expects to be in production with standard MRAM products in 2005, the spokesman added.

Freescale Semiconductor is now sampling its MRAM.