Market updates - Page 2

NanoMarkets’ new report covers the markets for FRAM, MRAM, nanocrystalline memory, ovonic memory, nanotube memory, molecular memory, polymer memory, holographic memory and MEMS-based memory systems. The report identifies and quantifies the opportunities presented by these technologies and the timeframes in which they will emerge. The current state of development for each of these technologies is identified – are they in R&D, sampling, pilot production, full-scale production? – as are the markets for these products.

The report discusses the types of end product that will use each of these technologies and in what context –i.e., do they replace DRAM, SRAM, Flash, disk storage or some combination of these? Will they create entirely new products? The role of key semiconductor companies and OEMs is also discussed, including the progress of some of the smaller firms active in this space. Particular attention is paid to how many of the competing nanomemory solutions can succeed and which ones they are most likely to be. Detailed market forecasts are included, broken out by technology type and application served.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Magneto resistive Random Access Memories (MRAM) Summary to their offering.

MRAM is the first radically new memory technology to show real commercial promise for many years. This report summarizes the extensive market research that has been done in the MRAM market and extends the coverage of MRAM provided in the Emerging Memory Technologies report. MRAM is already being commercialized and this report examines why MRAM is becoming one of the first complex nano-engineered products to hit the marketplace. It also takes a look at the challenges that this technology faces and provides a table indicating which market sectors are likely to use MRAM and when, and what their reasons for adoption would be. Sectors covered include mobile computing, cell phones and other handhelds, portable recording and other playback devices, home computing and consumer electronics, enterprise computing and telecommunications, control systems and embedded computing, and disposable electronics. Another table reviews the activities of approximately 15 actual and likely suppliers of MRAM including both giants, such as Freescale, and less well-known start-ups. The report ends with an analysis of the available marketing strategies in the MRAM market and a forecast of MRAM revenues over the next eight years.

Interesting article from Engineer Live, about MRAM, OUM and FRAM -
MRAM is the highest profile at the moment, with a 4Mbit prototype shown in December (2003) based around a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) where magnetic material stores the data bit.
"We are very excited about this," said Saied Tehrani, director of MPEM technology at Motorola Semiconductor division. "It really brings two parts of the industry together - semiconductor and magnetics. We have taken the thin film technology and integrated that with the silicon transistor technology and used the magnetic polarisation to store the data and the silicon transistor for reading and writing the information."
The 4Mbit part is built in 0.18µm technology but for commercial products Motorola is looking at jumping a process generation and going straight to the current leading edge 90nm. This is being developed at a plant in Crolles, France, in a joint development with Franco-Italian chip maker ST Microelectronics and Dutch electronics giant Philips.
This would allow 64Mbits or even 128Mbit stand alone devices to be built, but that is not the aim.
So Motorola is planning to embed MRAM into devices alongside other functions. Tehrani would not comment on what these devices would be, except to say that they would be out on the market in 2005 and Motorola would announce the roadmap later this year. "Microcontrollers are a definite possibility for this technology," he said.