US-based Grandis was established in 2002 to develop STT-MRAM technologies.
Grandis collaborated with Renesas and Hynix, and was acquired by Samsung in 2011 (in what was considered a very successful exit for its investors). Grandis raised $15 million since it was founded in 2002, and also raised about the same from DARPA grants including a $8.6 million second-phase project granted in June 2010.
Renesas and Grandis have agreed to collaborate on the development of 65 nm process MRAM employing spin torque transfer writing technology. Renesas Technology will start to ship microcomputers and SoC products incorporating 65 nm process STT-RAM(TM) in the near future.
"We are currently doing development work on MRAM technology employing high-speed and highly reliable conventional magnetic field data writing technology. We intend to use this technology in products such as microcomputers and SoC devices with on-chip memory," said Tadashi Nishimura, Deputy Executive General Manager of the Production and Technology Unit at Renesas Technology Corp. "Nevertheless, in view of factors such as the need to reduce writing instability and lower current requirements, we feel that spin torque transfer is a more appropriate technology for future MRAM produced using ultra-fine processes. Grandis has world-class spin torque transfer technology. We are confident that by fusing their technology with our production processes we will be able to develop a universal memory that combines high performance and excellent reliability."
Singulus technologies today announced the sale of a TIMARIS thin-film deposition system for MRAM wafer production to GRANDIS in Silicon Valley/USA. The two companies also signed a collaborative agreement on advanced TMR film development for MRAM (magnetic random access memory).
Dr. Yiming Huai, CTO and VP Engineering of GRANDIS remarked that "the newly-developed SINGULUS TIMARIS system allows us to accelerate the development of our STT-RAM technology". STT-RAM is a type of MRAM that employs spin transfer torque writing technology to overcome the high write currents and scaling limitations of conventional MRAM. As a result, STT-RAM is extendable to the 65 nm node and below.
Roland Lacher, CEO of SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES, commented: "The collaboration with GRANDIS is important to our company and is aimed at developing new TMR thin-film processes on the TIMARIS platform. TMR technology will be a key element in the production of next-generation MRAM. GRANDIS is a world leader in this area and works with companies such as RENESAS in Japan".
