February 2009

NEC announced the successful operational demonstration of a 32Mb MRAM that can be embedded in SoCs. NEC has reduced the area of control circuits in the 32Mb MRAM design in order to achieve superior cell efficiency that enables 73% of a memory macro's area to be allocated to memory cells. This was achieved by developing write circuits, which enables greater memory capacity.  The high-speed cycle time of 9ns was achieved by adopting new decoder circuits that minimize delay.

Furthermore, compatibility with an asynchronous SRAM was achieved by inserting protocol transform circuits between the MRAM macro and I/O buffer circuits.

In November 2007 NEC developed a high speed 250MHz, 1Mb MRAM macro suitable for embedding in system LSIs. However, since the memory cell of the high speed 1Mb MRAM macro consists of two transistors and one MTJ, enlarging its memory capacity is more challenging than increasing the memory of MRAM macro equipped with just one transistor and one MTJ cell.

The latest demonstrations adapted MRAM macro cell arrays with NEC's newly developed write circuits to achieve macro cell efficiency of 73%. This both reduced MRAM macro size and enlarged memory capacity.

The macro's word line decoder circuit was equipped with a word boost circuit in order to shrink memory cell area. However, word boost circuits are prone to delay and tend to extend the cycle time of macros. To solve this problem, a word boost circuit featuring optimized conversion levels was developed. Accordingly, the high speed operation cycle time of 9ns was achieved despite being a large capacity 32Mb macro.

Looking forward, NEC is aiming to demonstrate an SoC integrated with large capacity, high speed MRAM macros.

Samsung and Hynix have started to work on 30-nano STT-RAM. They hope to have chips out by the end of the year (probably samples only...). It appears that the Korean government is helping to fund the project.
Samsung and Hynix announced the JV in 2008, they hoped to get commercial chips by 2012. Hynix has licensed STT-RAM technology from Grandis in 2008.

Grandis today announced their 300-millimeter magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) fabrication facility (Fab) in the US dedicated to STT-RAM. Grandis is now able to incorporate STT-RAM into its customers' most advanced semiconductor processes on 300mm wafers.

Grandis' MTJ Fab can now handle both 200mm and 300mm customer wafers. In a multi-million dollar investment, key equipment for depositing and annealing MTJ memory elements, the critical building blocks for STT-RAM, was purchased. Since Grandis' new licensees are often not familiar with fabricating MTJ elements and do not possess the associated fab equipment and know-how, the MTJ Fab's main purpose is enable licensees to incorporate Grandis' MTJ elements into their CMOS wafers at the earliest possible stage in the development cycle, thereby accelerating their STT-RAM development and reducing their time-to- market. The MTJ Fab also enables Grandis to conduct leading-edge R&D on new magnetic materials and MTJ elements targeted at further reducing STT-RAM write current and die size. As these new materials, structures and processes are proven, they are transferred immediately to licensees' production fabs.

Startup 4DS has emerged from stealth mode and claims to have made a major breakthrough in resistive random access memory (RRAM) technology. They also announced a new round of funding, and they are looking for a manufacturing partner to bring it's "4DS memory" into mass production.

RRAMs have been the subject of academic research since the discovery of the electrical pulse induced resistance change effect in such films around 2000.

RRAM cells are usually two-terminal devices based on perovskite-oxide thin film materials. Resistive switching memories are based on materials whose resistivity can be electrically switched between high and low conductive states. RRAM is becoming of interest for future scaled memories, because of their intrinsic scaling characteristics compared to the charge-based flash devices, and potentially small cell size, enabling dense crossbar RRAM arrays using vertical diode selecting elements.

4DS' RRAM is a high-capacity, non-volatile memory with fast switching speeds measured below 5-ns, and with an endurance of 1 billion write/read cycles. Compared to flash memory, RRAM requires lower voltages and lower currents, enabling its use in low power applications, he said.

RRAM exhibits lower programming currents than phase-change memory or PRAM, the company said. Compared to MRAM, RRAM has a simpler, smaller cell structure. MRAM has a 16F² structure, while 4DS makes use of a 4F² technology.

Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated for the first time the existence of a key magnetic—as opposed to electronic—property of specially built semiconductor devices. This discovery raises hopes for even smaller and faster gadgets that could result from magnetic data storage in a semiconductor material, which could then quickly process the data through built-in logic circuits controlled by electric fields.

In a new paper, researchers from NIST, Korea University and the University of Notre Dame have confirmed theorists’ hopes that thin magnetic layers of semiconductor material could exhibit a prized property known as antiferromagnetic coupling—in which one layer spontaneously aligns its magnetic pole in the opposite direction as the next magnetic layer. The discovery of antiferromagnetic coupling in metals was the basis of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics, but it is only recently that it has become conceivable for semiconductor materials. Semiconductors with magnetic properties would not only be able to process data, but also store it.

Everspin has a new CEO and president: Aurangzeb Khan. In their press release, he makes an interesting comment:

“I could not be more excited to join Everspin at a time when the company is strongly expanding its product portfolio and ramping revenue growth,” said Khan. “Everspin’s revolutionary MRAM technology has broad market demand ranging from stand-alone memory products to embedded system-on-chip applications.”

Which might hint at standaline MRAM products from Everspin one day...

They also say they have 50 products already, in several markets:

Everspin MRAM delivers highly reliable, high-performance and cost-effective non-volatile random access memory. The company shipped the world’s first MRAM product in 2006. Everspin has grown its product portfolio to include 50 products and today has global production programs with industry leaders in the storage, industrial automation, gaming, energy management, communications, consumer, transportation and avionics markets.

UPDATE - seems like I got it all wrong. By standalone, they mean the current chips available. The new kind are chips for embedded SoC. Here's what Saeid, Everspin's COO told me:

“Everspin currently has standalone memory from 256kb to 4Mb range and plans to introduce 16Mb. Standalone means that the chip only has memory function (storing data).  Embedded or System on a chip means you are adding other functions like control, computing, communication to the chip in addition to data storage.”