February 2020

GlobalFoundries announced that it has delivered the first production-ready eMRAM on its 22FDX platform for IoT and automotive applications. The company says that its advanced eMRAM provides a "cost-effective solution for low-power, non-volatile code and data storage applications".

GF says that it has entered production and is working with several clients with multiple production tape-outs scheduled in 2020. GF's eMRAM is designed as a replacement for high-volume embedded NOR flash (eFLASH). GF says that its eMRAM has passed five rigorous real-world solder reflow tests, and has demonstrated 100,000-cycle endurance and 10-year data retention across the -40°C to 125°C temperature range. The FDX eMRAM solution supports AEC-Q100 quality grade 2 designs, with development in process to support an AEC-Q100 quality grade 1 solution next year.

Researchers from Northwestern University suggest building STT-MRAM devices from antiferromagnetic materials - as opposed to the currently-used ferromagnetic ones. The researchers say that these materials will enable higher-density devices that feature high speed writing with low currents.

Antiferromagnetic materials are magnetically ordered at the microscopic scale, but not at the macroscopic scale. This means that there is no magnetic force between adjacent bits in MRAM cells built from these materials - which means you can pack them very close together.

Researchers from National Taiwan University demonstrate that chalcogenide material BiTe with non-epitaxial structure can give rise to a giant spin Hall ratio and SOT efficiency (~ 200%) without obvious evidence of topologically-protected surface state (TSS).

The researchers explain that a clear thickness-dependent increase of the SOT efficiency indicates that the origin of this effect is from the bulk spin-orbit interaction of such materials system. Efficient current-induced switching through SOT is also demonstrated with a low zero-thermal critical switching current density (~ 6×10⁵ A/cm²).

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have identified a promising spintronics candidate material - few-layer thin semimetal molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe₂). When thinned to a few layer thickness, the MoTe₂ features excellent Spin Hall Effect properties.

The team now aims to incorporate MoTe₂ into functional devices - such as MRAM devices.

Hprobe, a developer of testing equipment for magnetic devices, has raised more than 2 million euros from a group of international investors. The new funds will support Hprobe's spintronics device testing development - which include MRAM and TMR sensors.

The investment round was led by Germany-based High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), a public-private venture capital investment firm. Other investors include Taiwan ITRI's ITIC VC firm and TEL Venture Capital.