Space MRAM - Page 2

Freescale is providing MRAM non-volatile memory technology for environmentally harsh applications, such as military, aerospace, industrial and automotive systems. Angstrom Aerospace recently announced the use of Freescale's extended temperature range 4Mbit MRAM in its magnetometer subsystem, which will be launched into space on board a Japanese research satellite.

Angstrom Aerospace is using Freescale's MRAM in its Tohoku-AAC MEMS Unit (TAMU), a magnetometer subsystem for the Japanese research satellite called SpriteSat. In developing the Satellite subsystem, Angstrom Aerospace worked closely with Dr. Johan Akerman, a renowned Swedish professor of material physics and applied spintronics at the Royal Institute of Technology.

"I've worked with MRAM for years, and when it comes to reliability and endurance for data storage, there is no comparison to Freescale's MRAM products," said Dr. Johan Akerman. "Freescale's 4Mbit MRAM device replaces both flash and battery-backed SRAM in Angstrom's module for the SpriteSat. The ability to reconfigure critical programs and route definitions during various stages of a satellite mission is a significant benefit."

TAMU plans to provide SpriteSat with magnetometer data of the Earth's magnetic field. SpriteSat is built by the Tohoku University located in Sendai, Japan, under the supervision of Professor Kazuya Yoshida. Scheduled to be launched in late 2008, SpriteSat's mission is to monitor "sprite" phenomenon (lightning effects) in Earth's upper atmosphere.

Angstrom Aerospace selected Freescale's 4Mbit MRAM device because it combines non-volatile memory with extended temperature operation, unlimited endurance and long-term data retention even when the power fails. The MRAM stores program data and FPGA configuration data on a single memory, allowing Angstrom Aerospace to reduce all storage requirements to one chip, reducing board area. At the same time, the flexibility of MRAM storage allows the system to be reconfigured significantly in space.

"Our extended temperature MRAM provides unique high temperature and high reliability capabilities for rugged system designs, such as the TAMU," said David Bondurant, MRAM product manager at Freescale. "MRAM benefits also extend to the transportation and industrial markets, where Freescale is working with developers who require growing amounts of fast but cost-effective memories that are ideally non-volatile and capable of large numbers of read and write cycles."

In addition to Angstrom Aerospace's MRAM deployment, e2v, a leading designer, developer and manufacturer of specialized components for some of the world's leading OEMs in aerospace and defense, has announced licensing of Freescale's MR2A16A product. The company has released an extended-reliability version with full-performance operations across the entire military temperature range, ideally fulfilling avionics, defense and aerospace application requirements.

Honeywell announced today that it has developed a new line of sophisticated electronic components designed specifically to meet the stringent reliability requirements for computers operating in technically advanced military and commercial aerospace conditions.

One of the products is HXNVO100 -The first non volatile Magnetic RAM (MRAM) to combine SOI CMOS technology with magnetic thin films. The HXNVO100 is a one-million bit MRAM for strategic space electronics applications and can be used as a replacement for plated wire memory, as the program memory function.

Honeywell has developed a one-million bit non volatile static memory component for strategic space electronics applications (see related story). Built with Honeywell's radiation-hardened, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, and combined with magnetic thin films, the new memory component provides high reliability for low-voltage systems operating in radiation environments.

The magnetic RAM runs from a 3.3-volt power supply and has high reliability, enabling it to operate through the natural radiation found in space. It offers nearly unlimited read/write cycles (>1e15) and uses Honeywell's 150-nanometer SOI CMOS technology as well as a unique set of wafer processes developed at the company's "Trusted Foundry" in Plymouth, Minn.

Here's an interesting examination of Freescale's MRAM by SemiSerious.

MRAM will not replace DRAM because it is slower, therefore The "instant-on" computer is not around the corner, but MRAM can boot operating systems or other code faster than present-day NOR flash.

The bottom line may be evolution — not revolution as Freescale's new MRAM device seems most suited to critical military and space applications where MRAM has already been deployed at lower resolutions. MRAM is very likely to start to replace NV-SRAM since it must be cheaper to produce a more or less standard die in a standard package than to start adding batteries to the mix.

Magnetic RAM Innovative Communications Materials - University of Idaho ($1 million) project. This ongoing research will combine MRAM cells, which are intrinsically radiation-hard, with radiation-tolerant microelectronics, leading to low power, nonvolatile memories that function in space.