Motorola builds 1-Mbit MRAM for mobile iappliances

HONOLULU -- During the VLSI Circuit Symposia event here today, Motorola Inc.'s Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) and Motorola Labs unveiled what is believed to be the world's first 1-megabit MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory).

"MRAM has the potential to become the prevalent memory of choice for the vast majority of digital consumer applications like cell phones, mobile devices, laptops, PCs and even automobiles," said Saied Tehrani, director of MRAM technology at SPS, in a statement.

"As leaders in developing this technology, we are solidly on track to achieve our goal of MRAM samples in 2003 and production in 2004," Tehrani said.

Motorola had previously developed the first 256-Kbit MRAM chip. The 1-Mbit chip brings the semiconductor industry much closer to commercialization of this technology.

MRAM technology enables the integration of multiple memory options within a single chip. By eliminating the need for multiple memories, future consumer products can be smaller, and have more cost-effective memory-based functions.

Motorola's 1-Mbit MRAM is based on a memory cell defined by a single transistor (1T) and a single Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ), with read and write cycles of less than 50-ns. The 64-Kbit x 16 memory design is based on a 0.6-micron CMOS process and was fabricated on a 200-mm substrate using copper interconnects.

A new structure of cladding magnetic material was used on the copper interconnect lines to reduce the power needed to program the bits by a factor of four. This structure provides a high performance, low power, and cost competitive memory.