Everspin Technologies

Last updated
Everspin Technologies, Inc.
Company type Public
Industry Semiconductors
Founded2008;16 years ago (2008)
Headquarters Chandler, Arizona, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
  • MRAM memory
  • non-volatile memory products
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$55 million (2021)
Number of employees
75 (2021)
Website everspin.com
Footnotes /references
[1]

Everspin Technologies, Inc. is a publicly traded semiconductor company headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, United States. It develops and manufactures discrete magnetoresistive RAM or magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) products, including Toggle MRAM and Spin-Transfer Torque MRAM (STT-MRAM) product families. [2] It also licenses its technology for use in embedded MRAM (eMRAM) applications, magnetic sensor applications [3] as well as performs backend foundry services for eMRAM.

Contents

MRAM has the performance characteristics close to static random-access memory (SRAM) while also having the persistence of non-volatile memory, meaning that it will not lose its charge or data if power is removed from the system. This characteristic makes MRAM suitable for a large number of applications where persistence, performance, endurance and reliability are critical.

History

The path to MRAM began in 1984 when the GMR effect was discovered by Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg. [4] Twelve years later, in 1996, spin-transfer torque is proposed, [5] [6] enabling a magnetic tunnel junction or spin valve to be modified with a spin-polarized current. At this point, Motorola began their MRAM research, which led to their first MTJ in 1998. [7] A year later, in 1999, Motorola developed a 256Kb MRAM Test Chip [8] that enabled work to begin on productizing MRAM technology, which was followed by a patent for Toggle being granted to Motorola in 2002. [9] The industry's first MRAM (4Mb) product became commercially available in 2006. [10]

Much of the early MRAM work was done by Motorola, who spun off their semiconductor business in 2004, creating Freescale Semiconductor in 2008, [11] which eventually spun out the MRAM business as Everspin Technologies. [12]

In 2008, Everspin announced BGA packages for their MRAM product family [13] that would support densities from 256Kb to 4Mb. [14] The following year, in 2009, Everspin released their first generation SPI MRAM product family [15] and began shipping the first embedded MRAM samples in conjunction with GlobalFoundries. By 2010, Everspin had begun ramping production and sold its first million MRAMs. That same year qualification had completed on the industry's first embedded MRAM and 16Mb densities [16] [17] had been released.

With production ramping, Everspin shipped its four millionth stand-alone MRAM [18] and its two millionth embedded MRAM by 2011. The 64Mb ST-MRAM, which was produced on a 90 nm process [19] occurred in 2012.

In 2014 Everspin partnered with GlobalFoundries for production of in-plane and perpendicular MTJ ST-MRAM on 300mm wafers, utilizing 40 nm and 28 nm node processes. [20]

By 2016, Everspin had announced it was shipping samples of the industry's first 256Mb ST-MRAM to customers, [21] GlobalFoundries announced 22 nm embedded MRAM in conjunction with Everspin, [22] and Everspin went public in an IPO later in the year on October 7. [23]

In 2017, Everspin expanded support for MRAM to FPGAs by bringing DDR3 and DDR4 compatibility to its ST-MRAM products, making it compatible with Xilinx's UltraScale FPGA memory controller. [24] On September 1, 2017, Kevin Conley was named Everspin CEO and President. Conley was the former CTO of SanDisk and brings enterprise storage expertise to the company.[ citation needed ]

In 2018, Everspin ramped production volumes of its 256Mb STT-MRAM and in December shipped its first customer samples of the 1Gb STT-MRAM. [25]

In 2019, Everspin began pre-production of its 1Gb STT-MRAM in June and announced the expansion of the design-in ecosystem to enable system designers to implement the 1Gb ST-DDR4 product in their designs. [26]

Technology

MRAM uses the magnetism of electron spin to provide fast and enduring non-volatile memory. MRAM stores information in magnetic material that is integrated with silicon circuitry to deliver the speed of RAM with the non-volatility of Flash. [27]

Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Everspin owns and operates a manufacturing line for its magnetic back-end-of-line wafer processing, using standard CMOS wafers from foundries.[ citation needed ] Everspin's current MRAM products are based on 180-nm, 130-nm, 40-nm, and 28-nm process technology nodes and industry standard packages.[ citation needed ]

Products

Toggle MRAM

Toggle MRAM memory utilizes the magnetism of electron spin, enabling the storage of data without volatility or wear-out. Toggle MRAM utilizes a single transistor and a single MTJ cell in order to provide a durable, high-density memory. Because of the non-volatility of Toggle MRAM, data that is held in this memory is accessible for 20 years, at temperature (from -40c to 150c). The MTJ is composed of a fixed magnetic layer, a thin dielectric tunnel barrier, and a free magnetic layer. When a bias is applied to the Spin Toggle's MTJ, electrons that are spin polarized by the magnetic layers "tunnel" across the dielectric barrier. The MTJ device has a low resistance when the magnetic moment of the free layer is parallel to the fixed layer and a high resistance when the free layer moment is oriented anti-parallel to the fixed layer moment.[ citation needed ]

Production densities include 128Kb to 16Mb; available in Parallel [28] and SPI interfaces; [29] DFN, SOIC, BGA, and TSOP2 packages

Spin-transfer torque MRAM

Spin-transfer torque is a type of MRAM memory (STT-MRAM) built with a perpendicular MTJ that uses the spin-transfer torque property (the manipulation of the spin of electrons with a polarizing current) to manipulate the magnetic state of the free layer to program, or write, the bits in the memory array. Everspin's Perpendicular MTJ stack designs with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy bring long data retention, small cell size, high density, high endurance, and low power. STT-MRAM has lower switching energy compared to Toggle MRAM, and can reach higher densities. STT-MRAM products from Everspin are compatible with JEDEC standard interfaces for DDR3 and DDR4 (with some modifications needed for MRAM technology). In this mode, the DDR3 product can act like a persistent (non-volatile) DRAM and require no refresh, [30] while the DDR4 product has self-refresh mode under idle state conditions. [31] The DDR4 compatible STT-MRAM devices, with a 1Gb density, began early sampling to customers in early August 2017. [32] In June 2019, the 1Gb STT-MRAM entered pilot production. [33] In 2020 GlobalFoundries started using their 12nm production platform for Everspins MRAM. [34] The companies worked together since 2014, when GlobalFoundries produced 48nm MRAM products. [35]

nvNITRO Storage Accelerators

Everspin developed nvNITRO products to address storage requirements that are typically being served by NVMe products. There are two different form factors, HHHL (PCIe Gen3 x8), and U.2. These devices can store up to 1GB in data today, with greater capacities planned as MRAM densities scale up over time. nvNITRO products can handle both NVMe 1.1 and block storage requirements. Because these products are built on MRAM, they do not require the battery backup of typical magnetic storage products in order to protect data in flight. Everspin officially launched the first version of the nvNITRO in August 2017, based on 256Mb ST-MRAM (1GB and 2GB capacities). Future versions will be based on the upcoming 1Gb ST-MRAM densities which recently began sampling to customers. [36] SMART Modular Technologies has signed up as an nvNITRO technology partner and will sell nvNITRO storage accelerators under their brand name. [37] [38]

Embedded MRAM

Everspin has partnered with GlobalFoundries to integrate MRAM into standard CMOS technology, enabling it to be integrated, non-destructively, into CMOS logic designs. The embedded MRAM can replace embedded flash, DRAM or SRAM in any CMOS design, delivering similar capacities of memory with non-volatility. Embedded MRAM can be integrated into 65 nm, 40 nm, 28 nm and now in GlobalFoundries 22FDX process which is 22 nm and utilizes fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI). [39]

Related Research Articles

Spintronics, also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices. The field of spintronics concerns spin-charge coupling in metallic systems; the analogous effects in insulators fall into the field of multiferroics.

Non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) is random-access memory that retains data without applied power. This is in contrast to dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and static random-access memory (SRAM), which both maintain data only for as long as power is applied, or forms of sequential-access memory such as magnetic tape, which cannot be randomly accessed but which retains data indefinitely without electric power.

Magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) is a type of non-volatile random-access memory which stores data in magnetic domains. Developed in the mid-1980s, proponents have argued that magnetoresistive RAM will eventually surpass competing technologies to become a dominant or even universal memory. Currently, memory technologies in use such as flash RAM and DRAM have practical advantages that have so far kept MRAM in a niche role in the market.

Non-volatile memory (NVM) or non-volatile storage is a type of computer memory that can retain stored information even after power is removed. In contrast, volatile memory needs constant power in order to retain data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunnel magnetoresistance</span> Magnetic effect in insulators between ferromagnets

Tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) is a magnetoresistive effect that occurs in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), which is a component consisting of two ferromagnets separated by a thin insulator. If the insulating layer is thin enough, electrons can tunnel from one ferromagnet into the other. Since this process is forbidden in classical physics, the tunnel magnetoresistance is a strictly quantum mechanical phenomenon, and lies in the study of spintronics.

Nano-RAM is a proprietary computer memory technology from the company Nantero. It is a type of nonvolatile random-access memory based on the position of carbon nanotubes deposited on a chip-like substrate. In theory, the small size of the nanotubes allows for very high density memories. Nantero also refers to it as NRAM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnetic storage</span> Recording of data on a magnetizable medium

Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is accessed using one or more read/write heads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferroelectric RAM</span> Novel type of computer memory

Ferroelectric RAM is a random-access memory similar in construction to DRAM but using a ferroelectric layer instead of a dielectric layer to achieve non-volatility. FeRAM is one of a growing number of alternative non-volatile random-access memory technologies that offer the same functionality as flash memory. An FeRAM chip contains a thin film of ferroelectric material, often lead zirconate titanate, commonly referred to as PZT. The atoms in the PZT layer change polarity in an electric field, thereby producing a power-efficient binary switch. However, the most important aspect of the PZT is that it is not affected by power disruption or magnetic interference, making FeRAM a reliable nonvolatile memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spin-transfer torque</span> Physical magnetic effect

Spin-transfer torque (STT) is an effect in which the orientation of a magnetic layer in a magnetic tunnel junction or spin valve can be modified using a spin-polarized current.

Racetrack memory or domain-wall memory (DWM) is an experimental non-volatile memory device under development at IBM's Almaden Research Center by a team led by physicist Stuart Parkin. It is a current topic of active research at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Dr. Parkin's group. In early 2008, a 3-bit version was successfully demonstrated. If it were to be developed successfully, racetrack memory would offer storage density higher than comparable solid-state memory devices like flash memory.

Double Data Rate 4 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory with a high bandwidth interface.

GlobalFoundries Inc. is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD, the company was privately owned by Mubadala Investment Company, a sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, until an initial public offering (IPO) in October 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netlist, Inc.</span> International SSD manufacturer from Irvine, California

Netlist, Inc. is a Delaware-registered corporation headquartered in Irvine, California that designs and sells high-performance SSDs and modular memory subsystems to enterprise customers in diverse industries. It also manufactures a line of specialty and legacy memory products to storage customers, appliance customers, system builders and cloud and datacenter customers. Netlist holds a portfolio of patents in the areas of server memory, hybrid memory, storage class memory, rank multiplication and load reduction. Netlist has more than 120 employees and an annual revenue of US$142.4 million as of 2021 The stock was added to NASDAQ in late 2006. In the initial public offering of its common stock in 2006, Netlist sold 6,250,000 shares at $7.00 each. On September 26, 2018, Netlist announced they were moving from NASDAQ and currently trades on the OTCQB.

A NVDIMM or non-volatile DIMM is a type of persistent random-access memory for computers using widely used DIMM form-factors. Non-volatile memory is memory that retains its contents even when electrical power is removed, for example from an unexpected power loss, system crash, or normal shutdown. Properly used, NVDIMMs can improve application performance and system crash recovery time. They enhance solid-state drive (SSD) endurance and reliability.

Grandis, Inc. was founded in 2002 by Dr. Paul Nguyen and Bill Almon. Farhad Tabrizi later joined as CEO. It was backed by venture capital firms such as Sevin Rosen Funds and Matrix Partners to pioneer non-volatile solutions based on Spintronics. The solutions it developed was thin-film memory, which included the invention of spin transfer torque - random access memory (STT-RAM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">3D XPoint</span> Discontinued computer memory type

3D XPoint is a discontinued non-volatile memory (NVM) technology developed jointly by Intel and Micron Technology. It was announced in July 2015 and was available on the open market under the brand name Optane (Intel) from April 2017 to July 2022. Bit storage is based on a change of bulk resistance, in conjunction with a stackable cross-grid data access array, using a phenomenon known as Ovonic Threshold Switch (OTS). Initial prices are less than dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) but more than flash memory.

Virtium Solid State Storage and Memory is a privately held American company that manufactures semiconductor memory and solid-state disk (SSD) products for data storage in industrial/machine-to-machine designs, embedded systems, including small-footprint designs, and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. The company's primary markets of focus include defense, industrial systems, network communications, and transportation. The name Virtium is derived from the word virtue.

Weebit Nano is a public semiconductor IP company founded in Israel in 2015 and headquartered in Hod HaSharon, Israel. The company develops Resistive Random-Access Memory technologies. Resistive Random-Access Memory is a specialized form of non-volatile memory (NVM) for the semiconductor industry. The company’s products are targeted at a broad range of NVM markets where persistence, performance, and endurance are all required. ReRAM technology can be integrated in electronic devices like wearables, Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints, smartphones, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and 5G cellular communications, among other products. Weebit Nano’s IP can be licensed to semiconductor companies and semiconductor fabs.

Bernard Dieny is a research scientist and an entrepreneur. He is Chief Scientist at SPINTEC, a CEA/CNRS/UGA research laboratory that he co-founded in 2002 in Grenoble, France. He is also co-founder of two startup companies: Crocus Technology on MRAM and magnetic sensors in 2006 and EVADERIS on circuits design in 2014.

Guohan Hu is an electrical engineer specializing in magnetic storage and spintronics, and especially in the use of spin-transfer torque in magnetoresistive RAM, a type of non-volatile random-access memory. She works for IBM Research at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center as a distinguished research staff member and manager of the MRAM Materials and Devices group.

References

  1. ↑ "Everspin Technologies 2021 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 9 March 2022.
  2. ↑ "MRAM Getting More Attention At Smallest Nodes". semiengineering.com. 2023-08-10. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  3. ↑ "Everspin signs long-term patent license agreement with Alps Electric". semiconductor-digest.com. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  4. ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2007".
  5. ↑ L Berger (October 1996). "Emission of spin waves by a magnetic multilayer traversed by a current". Physical Review B. 54 (13): 9353–9358. Bibcode:1996PhRvB..54.9353B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.54.9353. PMID   9984672.
  6. ↑ J.C. Slonczewski (October 1996). "Current-driven excitation of magnetic multilayers". Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. 159 (1–2): L1–L7. Bibcode:1996JMMM..159L...1S. doi:10.1016/0304-8853(96)00062-5.
  7. ↑ Naji, Peter K (December 22, 1998). "High density magnetoresistive random access memory device and operating method thereof".
  8. ↑ N.P. Vasil'eva (October 2003), "Magnetic Random Access Memory Devices", Automation and Remote Control, 64 (9): 1369–1385, doi:10.1023/A:1026039700433, S2CID   195291447
  9. ↑ States6633498 United States 6633498,Engel; Bradley N., Janesky; Jason Allen, Rizzo; Nicholas D.,"Magnetoresistive random access memory with reduced switching field"
  10. ↑ David Lammers (October 7, 2006). "MRAM debut cues memory transition". EE Times.
  11. ↑ "Freescale completes spin-off from Motorola". EE Times Asia. December 7, 2004.
  12. ↑ Michael J. de la Merced (June 9, 2008). "Chip Maker to Announce It Will Spin Off Memory Unit". The New York Times.
  13. ↑ "Everspin - new, smaller and cheaper MRAM products for the consumer applications". MRAM-info.com. November 13, 2008.
  14. ↑ Mark LaPedus (November 13, 2008). "Freescale's MRAM spin-off rolls new devices". EE Times.
  15. ↑ R Colin Johnson (16 November 2009). "MRAM chips go serial in smart meters". EE Times.
  16. ↑ David Manners (April 20, 2010). "Everspin Launches 16Mbit MRAM, Volume In July". Electronics Weekly.
  17. ↑ Ron Wilson (April 19, 2010). "Everspin MRAM reaches 16 Mbits, looks toward embedded use in SoCs". EDN. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013.
  18. ↑ Stacey Higginbotham (January 18, 2012). "Everspin takes MRAM to Dell, LSI and beyond". GigaOM.
  19. ↑ Charlie Demerjian (November 16, 2012). "Everspin makes ST-MRAM a reality, LSI AIS 2012: Non-volatile memory with DDR3 speeds". SemiAccurate.com.
  20. ↑ "Everspin's ST-MRAM Technology to be deployed in GLOBALFOUNDRIES 22FDX eMRAM Platform | Everspin". www.everspin.com. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
  21. ↑ "Everspin 256Mb ST-MRAM with Perpendicular MTJ Sampling". Everspin.com. August 3, 2016.
  22. ↑ Merritt, Rick (September 15, 2016). "GF Debuts 7nm, Embedded MRAM". EE Times.
  23. ↑ Chris Mellor (October 10, 2016). "Everspin's Friday IPO goes pop: Moderate amount of champagne all 'round". theregister.co.uk. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
  24. ↑ "Everspin Expands MRAM Ecosystem with Xilinx FPGAs". Everspin.com. March 8, 2017.
  25. ↑ "Everspin Ships the World's First Pre-Production 28 nm 1 Gb STT-MRAM Customer Samples". Design And Reuse. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  26. ↑ Tallis, Billy. "Everspin Begins Production of 1Gb STT-MRAM". www.anandtech.com. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  27. ↑ Apalkov, D.; Dieny, B.; Slaughter, J. M. (October 2016). "Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory" (PDF). Proceedings of the IEEE. 104 (10): 1796–1830. doi:10.1109/jproc.2016.2590142. ISSN   0018-9219. S2CID   33554287.
  28. ↑ "Parallel Interface MRAM | Everspin".
  29. ↑ "Serial Peripheral Interface | Everspin".
  30. ↑ Everspin EMD3D256M08BS1/EMD3D256M16BS1 datasheet.
  31. ↑ Everspin EMD4E001GAS2 datasheet.
  32. ↑ "Everspin Announces Sampling of the World's First 1-Gigabit MRAM Product | Everspin". www.everspin.com. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  33. ↑ "Everspin Enters Pilot Production Phase for the World's First 28 nm 1 Gb STT-MRAM Component | Everspin Technologies Inc".
  34. ↑ "GlobalFoundries & Everspin Extend MRAM Pact to 12nm". anandtech.com. 2020-03-13. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  35. ↑ "GlobalFoundries Infuses 22FDX Platform With ST-MRAM Memory". tomshardware.com. 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  36. ↑ "Everspin Announces Production Release of 1 and 2 Gigabyte nvNITRO NVMe SSDs | Everspin". www.everspin.com. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  37. ↑ "SMART's MRAM NVM Express PCIe Card". smartm.com. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  38. ↑ "Everspin Announces Production Release of 1 and 2 Gigabyte nvNITRO NVMe SSDs" (PDF). 2017-08-07. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  39. ↑ "GLOBALFOUNDRIES Launches Embedded MRAM on 22FDX Platform". globalfoundries.com. September 15, 2016.
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