February 2024

Renesas Electronics announced that it has developed circuit technologies for embedded STT-MRAM that reduces the energy and voltage of the memory write operation. 

Renesas produced a 22-nm MCU test chip, that includes a 10.8 Mbit embedded MRAM memory cell array. It achieves a random read access frequency of over 200 MHz and a write throughput of 10.4-megabytes-per-second (MB/s).

Reports in Japan suggest that Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC) will enter into a new MRAM R&D project, together with Japan's Power Spin. PSMC plans to start producing MRAM chips by 2029, at its 12-inch factory that it is now building in Japan.

Power Spin, that holds MRAM IP originally developed at Tohoku University, will license its IP to PSMC and will assist in the required R&D and ramp-up of production at PSMC's fab. PSMC looks to utilize the MRAM technology mainly for generative AI data center solutions.