STT-MRAM - commercial state and challenges
2019 MRAM Technology and Business 2019
2019 MRAM: a promising new life after eFlash – An interview with GlobalFoundries
There is consensus in the industry that 28/22nm will be the end of eFlash, not because of scalability limitations but because of economic barriers, and therefore a new embedded NVM for code/data storage is needed
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14056/samsung-ships-first-commercial-emram-product
MRAM is one of the highest-performing and most durable non-volatile memory technologies currently exists. Because its eMRAM does not require an erase cycle before writing data, it is 1,000 times faster than eFlash, Samsung says. It also uses lower voltages when compared to eFlash, and therefore consumes around 1/400th the energy during writing process, according to the maker.
2019 Time-to-Market by MRAM industry Players
2016 Avalanche, Everspin, Global Foundries
- 2021 Avalanche - the spec 8Mbit – 64Mbit Embedded MRAM Macro (eMRAM)
patents
the WRITE challenges
Opportunistic Write for Fast and Reliable STT-MRAM
the ON/OFF ratio challenge... for the size of MRAM
circuitry
old 2011 Cross-point architecture for spin transfer torque magnetic random access memory
2021 Only one issue remains unsolved to date: IBM must figure out how to reduce the current needed to switch states by about 50%.
- The time it takes to switch states must be fast, in the 2-3 nanosecond range.
- The switching must be reliable, down to 1e-9 write error rate.
- The switching voltage distribution must be in a tight range for consistent operation.
- The fabrication process must be possible on the advanced process nodes used in microprocessors, currently in 5 or 7nm.
- The current required to switch states must be low, about ½ what is presently possible.