Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

Of all the memories that have sprung up over the years, MRAM seems most likely to be on the verge of large-scale and widespread adoption. Whether this will happen quickly depends on advances in manufacturing and an ecosystem that supports discrete and embedded MRAM device technologies.

MRAM as well as PCRAM and ReRAM have reached a tipping point, and it makes sense in more applications than ever before. However, from a process and material point of view, it does face a series of manufacturing challenges because the materials and processes it uses are different from those of traditional CMOS manufacturing.

MRAM is currently manufactured as a [back-end of line] (BEOL) process in a separate factory. New equipment not used in traditional CMOS manufacturing, such as ion beam etching and new sputtering targets, is needed. In order to reduce the cost of embedded MRAM products, manufacturing needs to enter the CMOS fab and become a part of conventional equipment manufacturing.

In addition to further integrating MRAM into the manufacturing chain, quality control and yield improvement, like other semiconductor manufacturing processes, will be an ongoing challenge and opportunity, and the fact is that all large semiconductor foundry have adopted MRAM memory as an option. Embedded products are of great significance. By integrating MRAM into its embedded products and applying MRAM in a large number of conventional equipment manufacturing, the output and quality problems will be solved, and the unique tools for MRAM production will become more common and more embedded in contract manufacturing. This will reduce costs and improve availability.

Applied Materials specializes in addressing MRAM-specific challenges, including the need for new materials. It has developed the Endura platform from a single processing system to an integrated processing system as part of the material engineering foundation of emerging memories, including MRAM.

The biggest manufacturing challenge for MRAM is related to the complexity of the stack and the number of layers required (more than 30 layers). The reason why it is so complex is that these layers have many uses. Fundamentally, MRAM is basically composed of narrow magnets, so magnetic materials are needed that can maintain a certain direction (including the bottom reference layer) without being affected by any external magnetic field.

There are many substantive aspects of the stack, with several layers serving as blocking or seed layers, followed by the very thin MgO layer inherent in making tunnel junctions, which is the core of the MRAM stack. Because this barrier is very thin, there is a risk of being easily destroyed. It requires the ability of many layers and a lot of materials. This precision is required so that the correct thickness can be accurately deposited.

Because deposition quality is critical to the performance of the MRAM device itself, and in general, the foundry has created a toolset. Put MRAM into production. This helps create an environment in which companies can start designing MRAM devices specifically for artificial intelligence and Internet of things (IoT) applications, where persistence, power gating and power management are critical. MRAM has some unique features here.

Its capabilities may cause MRAM to replace existing memory (such as sram) or create new use cases together. Seek to make MRAM as similar as possible to SRAM because it provides the same value proposition but has three to four times the memory in the same footprint without any leaks from SRAM. Despite the importance of continuous material extraction, spin memory is using a circuit-level method suitable for any magnetic tunnel junction, which enables it to improve performance by several orders of magnitude in terms of durability.

Everspin Technologies is a global leader in the design and manufacture of discrete and embedded MRAM and spin transfer torque MRAM (STT-MRAM). Its market and applications involve data persistence and integrity, and low latency and security are critical. Everspin MRAM deploys more than 120 million MRAM and STT-MRAM products in the data center, cloud storage, energy, industrial, automotive and transportation markets, laying the strongest and fastest-growing foundation for global MRAM users. Everspin acting Yuxin Electronics provides users with product technical guidance and solutions and other products and services.

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