The US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) awarded Crocus with a contract to develop 8-bit per cell MRAM technology. This is the first phase in a multi-bit cell development project that is scheduled to be completed in one year.
Crocus will expand its magnetic logic unit (MLU) architecture to enable 8-bit per cells. This will reduce the energy consumed per written-bit to be below any other technology currently available. Such MRAM chips will be used to enhance chip security and cryptoprocessors as hacking into those chips will be more complex.
Crocus will use Axial Induced Moment (AIM) technology and Multi-Junction Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MJM). AIM uses the variable angle of the magnetic moment vector to encode binary data in a magnetic cell. Crocus proposes to demonstrate AIM with 16 storage angles yielding 4-bits per AIM cell. The MJM structure uses two tunnel barriers stacked in a single MLU cell. In a combined AIM/MJM structure, the two storage layers of MJM are operated with each layer supporting a rotating AIM storage vector. The combined AIM/MJM structure is capable of storing 16 states in each of two independent storage layers, resulting in 256 possible stored states or 8-bits per cell storage density.
