IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2018 - 88

The Art of Storage

Is Magnetoresistive Random
Access Memory in Your
Embedded-Product Future?
By Tom Coughlin

C

onsumer electronics devices are
usually embedded where con-
siderable consolidation of elec-
tronic components result in cost
savings, miniaturization enablement,
and higher reliability. An important fac-
tor in embedded electronic product oper-
ation, cost, performance, and power use
is employing various memory technolo-
gies for content caching and buffering.
There is a significant opportunity in the
market for consumer semiconductor
electronics for Internet of Things (IoT)
and automotive products. The total
automotive semiconductor electronics
market is estimated at US$42 billion,
and the total IoT semiconductor market
is estimated at US$34 billion.

CACHE AND BUFFER MEMORY
Cache memory is random access memo-
ry (RAM) available for rapid data access
by a central processing unit (CPU). It is
often built into semiconductor devices
with the CPU, and the cache reduces the
average time to access data that is other-
wise stored in the main memory. Copies
of data currently being processed are
kept in cache memory, providing fast
access. CPUs may use a hierarchy (or
multiple levels) of cache memory, differ-
entiated by their data throughput, called
L1, L2, and L3. These cache memories
typically use static RAM (SRAM) rather
than the dynamic RAM (DRAM), which
are commonly used for CPU main mem-

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCE.2018.2816301
Date of publication: 13 June 2018

88 IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

^

July 2018

Several companies are
either currently delivering
commercial MRAM
products or plan to do
so in the future.
ory. SRAM have associated transistors to
provide fast performance, and, thus, re-
quire much more real estate than DRAM.
As a consequence, SRAM are much
more expensive.
A buffer is temporary computer mem-
ory that holds data being sent or re-
ceived from an external device. Cache
and buffer memory are generally not as
large as the main memory in a comput-
er. Conventional cache and buffer mem-
ory are lost when power is turned off.
Additionally, DRAM requires periodic
data refreshes, even when the power is
not turned off. Thus, memories using
SRAM or DRAM are volatile, and there
are numerous advantages to replacing
those with nonvolatile memories.

CACHE AND BUFFER MEMORY
CANDIDATES
For caches and buffers, writes are very
frequent and performance is generally
high. As a consequence, NAND flash is
generally not a good choice for caches
and active memory buffers. A replace-
ment for an SRAM or DRAM memory
or buffer must be fast and have very
high endurance.
Spin torque transfer magnetoresis-
tive RAM (STT-MRAM), the emerging

memory technology with high endur-
ance and performance and nearly sym-
metric read and write speeds, is similar
to DRAM and SRAM. STT-MRAM
uses spin orientation in magnetic-thin
film structure reversed by tunneling
spin-polarized electric currents to store
data and, unlike DRAM, requires low
power. This combination makes STT-
MRAM particularly attractive as a
nonvolatile cache and buffer for battery-
powered consumer devices.

STT-MRAM IN CONSUMER
DEVICES
Several companies are either currently
delivering commercial MRAM products
or plan to do so in the future. Everspin
has been delivering MRAM stand-alone
chips for several years and has shipped
more than 70  million chips to date. In
2014, Everspin partnered with Global
Foundries to manufacture 300-mm com-
plementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
(CMOS) wafers with MRAM. Global
Foundries has made stand-alone MRAM
chips for Everspin and developed inte-
grated MRAM memory for embedded
electronic products.
In addition to Everspin and Global
Foundries, several other companies are
either shipping or plan to ship MRAM
products in 2018 or the near future. Sam-
sung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-
turing Corporation, Tokyo Electron, and
United Microelectronics Corporation
plan to begin shipping STT-MRAM-
embedded products as an alternative or
replacement for NOR flash, SRAM,
and DRAM. In general, these announced



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