Technical / Research - Page 13

Belgian's research center Imec announced today that it will collaborate with Canon Anelva on STT-MRAM research and development. This collaboration will be part of imec's R&D program on advanced emerging memory technologies and aims to explore the full technology potential of STT-MRAM including performance beyond 1ns and scalability beyond 10 nm for embedded & stand alone applications.

Canon Anelva already installed a deposition tool in imec’s state-of-the-art 300-mm clean room. Combined with imec’s advanced litho-cluster and its material engineering capabilities, imec’s industrial partners now have access to a complete 300-mm STT-MRAM-dedicated processing capability.

Researchers from the University of Virginia have developed a novel technology using MRAM for short- and long- term storage solutions. This device uses a spinning torque current to change the magnetization of each memory domain to achieve higher memory bit density and faster writing speeds. These memory domains are allocated along the memory line and a multi-ferroic element near each domain provides magnetization stability when a voltage is not being applied.

To write the individual bit, a current is passed through the memory line and the interaction of the multi-ferroic element and the free layer determines either “1” anti-parallel polarity between layers (high resistance) or “0” parallel polarity between layers (low resistance). The magnetization of the memory domains is then changed by reducing the exchange bias between the memory line and the multi-ferroic element (see figure above). Memory domains are independently writable and only require a single current input to store data. This significantly reduces energy consumption and time for the writing cycle, thereby improving both cost and performance efficiency.

Singulus Technologies and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany announced a $12 million partnership that will involve co-development of MRAM technologyies and processes for Tunnel Magneto Resistance (TMR) materials. Singulus and CNSE aim to deliver a critical technical need required to establish a fully installed, multi-equipment MRAM tool set capable of module and integrated processing for an MRAM development program.

More specifically, they will develop innovative deposition techniques (on 300mm equipment) for TMR materials and material stacks critical for advanced technology nodes. The research will focus on developing techniques to enable improvements in film deposition rates, deposition uniformity, and mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties, as well as advancing TMR processes and applications.

Tohoku University plans to open a new program for international academic-industrial collaboration on integrated electronics R&D in spring 2013. Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL) announced it will participate in the STT-MRAM research program, and will also develop manufacturing equipment technology for the program.

TEL has been collaborating with the university on Spintronics memory technology since December 2011, and apparently are also developing STT-MRAM STT-MRAM production equipment technology and integration technology together.

Researchers from A*STAR have posted an interesting study about STT-RAM production process. In particular, they say that it's already known that the annealing temperature controls the change in resistance between parallel and anti-parallel magnetizations. The higher the annealing temperature, the better larger the resistance change - but if the temperature is too high it drops.

The researchers now looked at an entire cell, and found out that the annealing temperature that yielded the maximum resistance variation exceeded the temperature necessary for maximum thermal stability.

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Nanounity has signed a Sales & Marketing agreement with Mountain Scientifics (MSI) to promote the MSI QSW-Gen3 Quasi-Static Wafer tester product for STT-MRAM devices. Today Nanounity says that they have received an order for a QSW-Express STT-RAM Wafer level Prober from a leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer.

Nanounity says it has signed a Sales & Marketing agreement with Mountain Scientifics (MSI). Nanounity will promote the MSI QSW-Gen3 Quasi-Static Wafer tester product and associated accessories such as a patented magnet & probe card arrangement with In-Plane and Perpendicular Fields for the testing and characterization of STT-RAM devices and HDD recording heads.

The QSW-Gen3 (initially released in 1999) is the first and only commercially available tester for STT-RAM and HDD production.

MicroSense says that they see an increase in orders for its MRAM magnetic metrology systems. MicroSense's metrology tools characterize the magnetic properties of multi-layer wafers used in the development and manufacturing of perpendicular MRAM. They offer a 300mm Polar Kerr (out-of-plane) MRAM metrology system, the KerrMapper (in-plane) tool and Vibrating Sample Magnetometers (VSM) for MRAM makers.

The company has been selling Gen-1 MRAM metrology tools since 2004. They say that now, with the recent developments in STT-MRAM, they see a number of new MRAM tool orders.

Tohoku University and Belgium's imec announced a a new collaboration in which the new twill work closely on several areas of research. Tohoku and imec already collaborate on advanced interconnects, MEMS and low-power sensor circuit readout designs, and in the future they will also jointly research MRAM, 3D integration technology, biosensors and wireless communication.

Integral Solutions International (ISI) released today a new wafer-level analyzer for STT-MRAM characterization, the WLA-3000. They say that this is the world's first commercially available and fully integrated solution to address the needs of production level testing of STT-MRAM wafers.

The WLA-3000 includes proprietary magnets, pulse generator module, probecard interfaces, and measurement electronics that were all specifically developed by ISI. ISI says they already shipped several of these testers which have now been qualified for high volume production testing of STT-MRAM devices.