Crocus - Page 3

Crocus announced that Morpho plans to develop smartcards based on Crocus' Magnetic-Logic-Unit (MLU) technology. The two companies signed an agreement under which Crocus will develop an MLU-based secure microcontroller which Morpho will integrate into its smart card products. The secure microcontroller product will be compliant with the latest quality and security standards.

According to Crocus, MLU technology (which is an adaption of thermally-assisted magnetic switching, or TAS, for use in memory access in addition to storage) offers the advantage of much higher read-write cycle endurance, compared with leading-edge flash memory, while also offering inherent non-volatility and low power operation. The use of MLU should also provide match-in-place capability, which can be used for secure authentication.

Crocus signed a joint technology development agreement and a mutual patent license agreement with IBM. They also signed a technology agreement - under which they will jointly develop semiconductor technology that combines Crocus' thermally assisted next generation Magnetic-Logic-Unit (MLU) technology with IBM's MRAM technology and processing capabilities.

MLU is a scalable evolution of Crocus' Thermally Assisted Switching (TAS) technology, and enables practical implementation of advanced magnetic logic and memory capabilities.

Crocus announced that they acquired NXP Semiconductor's MRAM patent portfolio - which includes fundamental MRAM intellectual property rights in multiple geographies worldwide, including North America, Europe and Asia.

Crocus now holds over 100 issued and pending patents related to the magnetic semiconductor technology covering magnetic materials, devices, and design and product technology.

Crocus developed a new technology called Magnetic-Logic-Unit (MLU), which is an evolution of their Thermally Assisted Switching (TAS) technology. MLU allows for practical implementation of advanced logic and memory capabilities - which will enable new applications in high density data storage, secure commerce and communications, high performance network processing and high temperature automotive and industrial markets.

Crocus' MLU provides stability to the stored data in normal operation. The MLU's reference leayer can be configured in three ways:

• With Fixed magnetization to implement a traditional NOR function
• With floating magnetization to implement a NAND function
• With driven magnetization to implement an XOR function, which ultra-secure compare and encrypt function.

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Crocus have successfully developed their 2nd generation MRAM products. It was rumored that Crocus will produce these chips in Russia, and today RusNano confirmed the story. The Russian state-owned investment group will invest $64 million to build an MRAM chip fab in Russia and further $55m will be invested in Crocus, which will control 51% of the joint venture (called Crocus Nano Electronics). They will begin mass producing MRAM chips in 2013.

Crocus announced that they have successfully developed their 2nd generation MRAM products, using SVTC Technologies production ready tools, metrology and infrastructure. Crocus said that they transferred the process to a production foundry.

Crocus says that their MRAM technology can be scalable to 90nm, 65nm and smaller, and offers high speed, reliability, and reduced power consumption.

Crocus announced that they have successfully integrated their Thermally Assisted Switching (TAS)-based MRAM technology into TowerJazz’s 0.13-micron CMOS process. Crocus hopes to get samples manufactured in the "very near future", with mass production starting in 2H 2011. The first chips will probably offer 1-Mbit of storage. TowerJazz and Crocus have been working towards TAS-MRAM production since June 2009.

To achieve this milestone, a number of critical technological problems were solved, particularly in the areas of deep submicron lithography of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stacks and the selection of materials for high device reliability. The newly developed technology adds only four masks to conventional CMOS manufacturing flows and is suitable for both standalone and embedded memory applications. The integration into TowerJazz’s copper-based 130nm CMOS logic process sets the stage for the market introduction of leading edge single chip memory products and embedded MRAM IP blocks to be used in complex Systems-On-Chip (SOC) for microcontroller, automotive and communications applications.

Menta SAS and LIRMM (The Montpellier Laboratory of Informatics, Robotics, and Microelectronics) has confirmed the tape out of world’s first MRAM-based FPGA. The FPGA is based on Menta's eFGPA Core programmable logic architecture and on CEA-LETI and Crocus's MRAM technology. It is manufactured in CMOS 130nm with magnetic junction in 120nm and provides capacity of 1,444 LUT4, equivalent to approximately 20K logic gates.

Pr Lionel Torres, in charge of the MRAM design project at LIRMM, says that “MRAM-based FPGA proposes better versatility with partial or dynamic re-configurability capabilities, instant on/off total or partial energy saving”.

Yesterday Crocus has announced a new CEO (Dr. Bertrand F. Cambou) and an 8 million euro investment. Last year we spoke with their previous CEO (Jean-Pierre Braun), and now Dr. Bertrand was kind enough to answer a few questions we had.

Q: The original plan was to release products towards the end of 2009. What's the new target date?
End of 2010 for sampling, mid 2011 for revenue.

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about these products?
At first it will be NV-SRAM 1Mbit. Then we will expand to a family 256Kb-4Mb. We will price it at market price.

Q: When we talked to Jean-Pierre, he estimated the applying the technology for STT-RAM (in 45-60nm) will take at least 4-5 years. What's your view on that?
In my view point the current technology has leg, and will be integrated into CMOS logic all the way to 45nm. STT-TAS will take the relay at 32nm and under within 4-5 years.

Q: Where does he see Crocus' products used in the first few years?
Beside NV-SRAM, Crocus technology should be integrated into logic for embedding memory (replacing SRAM & Flash) into MCU. There is also the opportunity to replace the fuse on SRAM based FPGA to offer re-programable FPGA.

Q: Will Crocus require another round of finance, or do you hope that you can break-even soon?
We will look at strategic corporate partners interested by Crocus technology: NRE/ advance payment on Royalties/ low dilution.....

Dr. Bertrand - thanks again for answering our questions... good luck to both you and Crocus!

Crocus announced an 8 million euro investment, and a change of CEO. The new CEO is Dr. Bertrand F. Cambou. His main task is to bring their MRAM products to the market. Crocus aims to complete the production transfer of its 130nm MRAM technology to manufacturing partner Tower Semiconductor soon.

Crocus has originally planned to start production towards the end of 2009.