[13p-A301-1~7] Frontier of Nonvolatile Memory technologies - Spintronic, Phase-change, Resistive and Ferroelectric-

[13p-A301-1] MRAM’s Journey from Specialty to Mainstream Memory

〇Sumio Ikegawa¹, Frederick B. Mancoff¹, Jason Janesky¹, Sanjeev Aggarwal¹ (1.Everspin Technologies, Inc.)

Keywords:magnetoresistive random access memory, spin-transfer torque, non-volatile memory

Magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) has the potential to outperform traditional semiconductor memories because of its high speed, robust endurance, and system power savings. Since the first commercial MRAM was launched in 2006, the memory capacity and market size have greatly expanded. In this paper, we focus on the evolution of the MRAM technology from Toggle to STT-MRAM and its commercialization. We review the challenges ahead with scaling STT-MRAM for continued scaling and performance. Discrete STT-MRAM manufactured by Everspin are being deployed as non-volatile write buffer memory in solid state drives. STT-MRAM has also found applications in embedded memories where eFlash and SRAM face scaling difficulties. Thus, three major foundries and two other companies are pursuing MRAM as well. These companies’ entry into MRAM market and the achievement of 1Gb memory capacity in 2019 indicate that MRAM is a promising candidate for a mainstream memory technology.