Sep 25 2007
Micromem Technologies Inc. is pleased to announce that as of September 20 2007 the MRAM wafers are in production in the Global Communications Semiconductor, Inc. (GCS) foundry. On September 17, 2007 Strategic Solutions, a design partner of Micromem, released the approved reticle design to the foundry. The reticle design incorporates an extensive matrix of tests to be performed on the Micromem MRAM bit structure as it is processed through the foundry. By October 29, 2007 the reticle test matrix will yield valuable information of the MRAM scalability, power consumption, read write speed and cross talk separation. Micromem is also planning additional radiation hardening test that will validate and supplement similar testing.
Steven Van Fleet, Micromem’s Project Director for this foundry phase stated “The entire team, Strategic Solutions, GCS and Micromem are extremely pleased with the foundry plan, schedule and reticle test plan. Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) is proving to have been a wise choice for our targeted applications. GaAs has two distinct advantages over silicon: speed and power. For the same power dissipation, a GaAs circuit is faster, at the same speed, the power in a GaAs circuit is usually lower. This is key to our targeted markets.”
“Military applications lead the list of interested joint development partners. The modern warfare soldier carries a lot of devices that require heavy batteries. If Micromem’s MRAM requires lower power dissipation, meaning lower battery weight, this will be a huge market opportunity for us” Van Fleet went on to say. The company anticipates meeting a lower power requirement.
“We are in discussions with companies that share similar needs in satellites, particularly phased array satellites. These sate llites require array based calibration memories that need to be close to the satellite and not housed in metal shielded boxes like silicon based memory. We remain encouraged that our MRAM rad hardness will survive where silicon memory performance continues to be challenged”
The foundry schedule is aggressive. We will complete Phase 1 of the foundry by early January 2008. After October 29, 2007 we should have the first set of available test data. Once we achieve our predicted target we will begin to execute application specific development plans for military and other niche application devices that will benefit from our MRAM memory. We hope to begin a collaboration with these development partners in early November, Micromem will then be in a position to transition quickly from the Phase 1 test phase into multiple and parallel product developments.
“I am very proud of what our team has been able to accomplish, and specifically the GaAs selection demonstrated true foresight. Micromem has finally reached a stage where the culmination of 10 years of hard work, dedication and effort is beginning to pay off, this is a truly exciting time for Micromem,” said Joseph Fuda.