Samsung Electronics opens the era of New Memory MRAM

Samsung Electronics has opened the new era of next-generation memory semiconductor, M-RAM. They are planning to expand built-in memory solutions by producing 1GB built-in M-RAM (eM-RAM) test chips within this year.

Samsung Electronics had announced in March 6th that they have shipped a batch of eM-RAM made with the 28-nano FD-SOI (Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator) process. It is built into SoC (System on Chips). eM-RAM is known to write 1000 times fasterand use less power than the conventional NOR Flash. According to the company, they can even supply the products at lower prices.

FD-SOI is a technology that Samsung Electronics is using for consignment production of medium-grade semiconductors. The key of this technology is to form a ultra-thin insulated oxide film on top of the silicon wafer, and to construct a flat-type transistor electrode on top of it. It has a high energy efficiency by reducing leakage current and also has non-volatile properties. But it does consume standby power since it keeps the stored data even when the power is off. The required operational voltage for data recording is also low.

Due to its simple structure, it can be implemented by only adding a minimum amount of layer on the design based on the existing logic process.

Lee Sang-hyun, the Director of Samsung Electronics Foundry Business Department’s Strategy Marketing Team, stated that “the eM-RAM will be applied to the previous logic process of the validated foundry to respond to the needs customer and the market.