Page 24 - EE|Times Europe Magazine - December 2020

24 EE|Times EUROPE — The Memory Market

SPECIAL REPORT: MEMORY TECHNOLOGY
Spin Partners with Arm, Applied in MRAM

Manufacturing

By Alan Patterson

pin Memory has partnered with Arm The one doesn’t change to
and Applied Materials to start making a zero. But we can detect
magnetoresistive RAM solutions in that. We can find out when
Sthe United States for adoption in mili- it happens and then go and
tary, automotive, and medical equipment. correct those errors.”
The eight-year-old company, based in Spin also has a technol-
Fremont, California, recently closed an exten- ogy called Precessional
sion of its Series B round of funding from Spin Current (PSC), which
existing financial and strategic partners that enhances the magnet-
include Arm and Applied Materials, according ics and retention of the
to Spin CEO Tom Sparkman. The company has perpendicular magnetic
built a dedicated MRAM fab in the U.S. and tunnel junction (pMTJ) Spin MRAM architecture diagram (Source: Spin Memory)
aims to tap trade war subsidies from the U.S. that’s a fundamental part
government in the near future, he said. of an MRAM. With the proprietary technology “I think what will end up happening even-
Spin has developed what Sparkman calls a added to a pMTJ, data retention increases by tually is that someone will want this military
“second generation” of the as much as 1,000×, according piece, and we’ll probably spin the fab out
memory in a perpendicular to the company. either as a standalone entity or sell it to one
configuration that increases “Where you would have of the guys in that business,” he said. “Then
density as much as 5× maybe a week’s retention we’ll become a fabless company that is just
compared with planar on an MTJ without our tech- designing unique products in MRAM.”
MRAM. “We’re focused on nology, you’d get over a year The foundries that make MRAM are looking
delivering second- with our technology,” said for a good way to implement MTJ technology,
generation MRAM manufac- Sparkman. he said.
tured in the U.S.,” Sparkman The technology advance- “What we’re doing with Arm is taking
said in an interview with EE ments help to make MRAM existing technologies from these foundries,”
Times. “We can make very competitive with SRAM and he added. “We add our techniques to them.
small quantities, at least flash memory, he added. And now, you’ve got a robust and what we call
enough for the military.” a zero-defect MRAM. It’ll pass automotive
Samsung, Taiwan Semi- Spin Memory’s SPIN FAB qualifications and is really as robust as you
conductor Manufacturing Tom Sparkman The fab that Spin currently need it to be.”
Co. (TSMC), GlobalFound- operates may be small, at The company is working with Applied
ries, and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) about 25 wafers per week, but it can meet Materials to provide MRAM technology to
can also make second-generation versions demand from the U.S. military, according to foundries that don’t already have it. Together
of MRAM but are doing so offshore. Among Sparkman. with Applied Materials, Spin plans to sell an
other companies working on perpendicular “It’s perfect for doing wafer services and, of MRAM process and provide engineers who
MRAM is Everspin Technologies, which is also course, prototyping and R&D,” he said. “What can bring the process into production.
manufacturing MRAM in the U.S. we’re proposing to the government is that
Spin has a portfolio of about 270 patents we take that very low capacity and expand it. TRADE WAR SUBSIDIES
covering intellectual property that it has If we got into hundreds of wafers per week, I Spin is counting on trade war subsidies for a
created to put nonvolatile memory (NVM) and think that’s all the government would need chunk of the nearly US$100 billion that will
SRAM together on a single MRAM die. from us. That’s the proposal we’re making.” probably come from the U.S. Congress’s pro-
“MRAM is a technology that can be very The company aims eventually to reach posed American Foundries Act and the CHIPS
flexible,” Sparkman said. “It can do NVM, and 1,000 wafers a month, which would be more Act, according to Sparkman. “MRAM is very
it can do SRAM. You can make it have very high than enough for U.S. military demand, unique in that it’s inherently rad-hard,” he
retention and not be very fast or not have a lot according to Sparkman. He foresees a “ton” said. “The next war is not going to be fought
of retention but with 10-nanosecond switch- of demand in the future for MRAM because in trenches; it’s most likely going to be fought
ing. And if you want to put both of those on a of its inherent radiation hardness, a charac- in the air and probably even in space. This
die with MRAM, that’s a patent we hold.” teristic attributable to its status as the first ability to withstand radiation is going to be
Another patented technology is what Spin mainstream memory that isn’t based on an a big deal.
calls its Endurance Engine, which increases electrical charge. “There’s a real move now in the United
the life of the MRAM while at the same time Though Spin’s plan for now is to be both States through the president or Congress or
correcting one of the characteristic idiosyn- a manufacturer and an intellectual prop- the military to move manufacturing from
crasies of the memory: stochasticity. erty licensor, Sparkman ultimately wants it China back here,” said Sparkman. ■
“You can write MRAM, and it doesn’t to become a fabless semiconductor com-
always write,” Sparkman said. “There is a pany. Spin is mainly funding itself through Alan Patterson is a contributing editor for
finite possibility to do everything perfectly. licensing. AspenCore.

DECEMBER 2020 | www.eetimes.eu