pMTJ - Page 3

Samsung demonstrated an LCD display that uses a tCON chip that uses embedded 28nm pMTJ STT-MRAM memory, instead of the normally used SRAM. The MRAM device had a density of 8Mb and a 1T-1MTJ cell architecture. The cell size is 0.0364 um².

A tCON chip is a timing controller chip that processes the video signal input and processes it to generate control signal to the source & gate driver of the LCD display. The memory is used a a frame memory which stores previous frame data. Samsung prepared a test chip that contains both SRAM and MRAM memory devices to show that there is no difference between the two. SRAM replacement is a popular MRAM application.

Researchers at IMEC developed a 8nm perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ) with 100% tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) and a magnetic coercive field up to 1,500 Oe in strength. The researchers also demonstrated integrated 1Mbit STT-MRAM 1T1MTJ arrays with pitches down to 100 nm.

IMEC says that this is the world's smallest pMTJ - which paves the way for high density stand-alone MRAM applications. The pMTJ was developed on 300mm silicon wafers in a production process that is compatible with the thermal budget of standard CMOS back-end-of-line technology.

STT-MRAM developer Avalanche Technology announced that volume production of its pMTJ STT-MRAM chips on 300 mm wafers will begin in early 2017. Avalanche started to sample 32Mb and 64Mb STT-MRAM chips in 2015

Avalanche has entered into a manufacturing agreement with Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (SSMC) for this volume production. Avalanche targets several markets, including Storage, Automotive, IoT and embedded applications. Avalanche will offer discrete MRAM chips from 4Mb to 64Mb in size.

Spin Transfer Technologies (STT) announced that it fabricated 20nm perpendicular MRAM magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) based on the company's Orthogonal Spin Transfer MRAM (OST-MRAM).

STT is now preparting to deliver OST-MRAM samples to select customer, following requests from "certain major semiconductor and systems companies". The company is processing more than 40 wafer lots at its R&D fab in Fremont, California.

Everspin announced that its perpendicular (pMTJ) STT-MRAM memory is going to be deployed by Global Foundries as an embedded 22nm memory. Everspin licensed its technology global foundries which will offer this as part of its 22FDX platform.

The 22FDX platform targets emerging applications such as battery powered consumer devices, IoT, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Vision Processing. Customers of Global Foundries will now be able to embed MRAM memory in next-generation SoC and MCU based producers.

Everspin announces that it is going to demonstrate the world's fastest solid-state drive (SSD) using its latest perpendicular ST-MRAM technology. The drive achieves continuous write operations of 1.5 Million IOPS, using Everspin's Everspin’s 256Mb DDR3 chips (manufactured by global foundries).

Everspin started sampling its new pMTJ ST-MRAM chips last month. The p-MTJ ST-MRAM offers improved performance, higher endurance, lower power, and better scalability compared to previous MRAM and ST-MRAM products. Everspin is developing on a scaled-down 1Gb version.

Aupera Technologies launched the world's first M.2 storage module based on Everspin's recently announced 256Mb pMTJ ST-MRAM. The Aup-AXL-M128, will be used in Aupera's All Flash Array system as a hardware acceleration engine for specific applications that require low latency and high performance.

Aupera says the company is excited at the future potential of this ST-MRAM based module. The ST-MRAM delivers four orders of magnitude BER reduction and more than 30% less power while quadrupling the capacity to 128MB as compared to the previous generation M.2 MRAM module.

Everspin announced that it has started shipping samples based on its perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ) ST-MRAM. The first chip is the EMD3D256MB - a 256Mb DDR device. This is Everspin's 3rd-gen MRAM technology.

The pMTJ ST-MRAM offers improved performance, higher endurance, lower power, and better scalability compared to previous MRAM and ST-MRAM products. The company (together with GlobalFoundries) is now focused on the production ramp of the 256Mb MRAM and is working on a scaled-down 1Gb version.

IBM researchers, in collaboration with Samsung researchers, demonstrated switching MRAM cells for devices with diameters ranging from 50 down to 11 nanometers in only 10 nanoseconds, using only 7.5 microamperes. The researchers say that this is a significant achievement on the way to high-density low-power STT-MRAM.

Using perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), the researchers can deliver good STT-MRAM performance down to 7×10^-10 write-error-rate with 10 nanosecond pulses using switching currents of only 7.5 microampere.

Everspin announced that it started shipping 256Mb ST-MRAM samples to customers. Everspin also plans to increase the density and sample 1Gb ST-MRAM chips later this year. The new chips demonstrate interface speeds comparable to DRAM, with DDR3 and DDR4 interfaces. Volume production is expected "soon".

The new EMD3D256 chips are based on Everspin's proprietary magnetic tunnel junction (pMTJ) spin torque technology - and the company expects the new technology to enable it to produce ST-MRAM in lower geometries - and higher densities beyond 1Gb in the future.