OREANDA-NEWS. “Crocus Nano Electronics”, the joint venture of RUSNANO and Crocus Technology, has completed first commercial order for wafers' processing, which was placed in late December 2013 by Crocus Technology.

Dmitri Choutov, VP for process technology in CNE noted: “In November 2013 on the first production line, CNE has processed some test batches of wafers with magnetic sensors and magnetoresistive memory. Analysis of the production result for these batches showed that the quality and reliability of CNE products are equivalent to, and in some aspects are superior, the samples prepared in the Crocus Technology laboratory in Grenoble on their equipment. This fact allowed us to turn the first line of plant into mass production mode and to start working with commercial orders”.

During the current quarter CNE will continue to supply wafers with MRAM and magnetic sensors and then gradually will introduce additional equipment to reach planned capacity till the end of 2014. At the same time the product line will be extended with IC for smart cards and with products based on MLU.

MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory) is a new type of memory technology which combines traditional semiconductor and advanced magnetic technologies. MRAM data is not stored as electric charge or voltage, but instead with help of magnetic polarization of layers in memory cell, thus providing very important feature for this type of memory-non-volatility, i.e., the ability to save data stored in the cell, even in case of power failure. Crocus' MRAM chips offer the high speed read/write performance, unlimited write cycles, and low voltage operation, along with the non-volatility and low cost. TAS™ (Thermally Assisted Switching) is a patented Crocus innovation for manufacturing advanced MRAMs, that incorporates unique temperature sensitive magnetic materials and structures for providing scalable and stable high-density memory.

MLU (magnetic logic unit)-innovative architecture of memory cell, developed by Crocus Technology based on TAS-MRAM (Thermally Assisted Switching MRAM).

Crocus' magnetic sensors are designed to provide superior performance in many industrial applications including rotation and speed sensing, position sensing, linear and angular sensing, current sensing, and switching/latching. Crocus' magnetic sensor solutions include multiple architectures, from single-ended magnetoresistor to Wheatstone Bridge. As oppose to Hall devices that have low sensitivity in general, our magnetic sensors feature several orders of magnitude higher sensitivity. Other advantages of Crocus' magnetic sensors include TAS-differential programming, low power, robust design, and high temperature performance.