SEMICON Taipei SOLVING MANUFACTURING CHALLENGES AND BRINGING SPIN TORQUE MRAM TO THE MAINSTREAM Joe O Hare, Marketing Director Sanjeev Aggarwal, Ph.D., VP Manufacturing & Process
Everspin Company Highlights 2 SEMICON Taipei
The Opportunity for MRAM Current Mainstream Memory is One-Dimensional. RAM is fast, but is also Volatile. FLASH is Non-Volatile, but is also slow, limited endurance, and requires high power. A complex system is required for Persistent RAM or High-Integrity NVM. The Market for Persistent RAM and High-Integrity NVM will be ~$5B by 2019. We address this market with Discrete and Embedded MRAM technology. We are optimizing the memory for Embedded Integration (>20Bu TAM by 2018). Magnetoresistive RAM, a.k.a. MRAM 3 SEMICON Taipei
Everspin Company Highlights The Market Leader in Advanced MRAM Products and Solutions Serves Large and Growing Markets ($2B+ Toggle & Spin Torque MRAM TAM in 2018) Well-Established OEM Relationships (Dell, Avago, Siemens, Bosch, BMW, Fujitsu ) Global, Cost Effective Operations Discrete MRAM 500+ Patents & Applications Worldwide, 350+ Patents Granted Worldwide Strong Financial Track Record and Privately Owned by Semiconductor VCs Systems MRAM Proven Quality and Reliability, Qualified by Numerous Tier One (Fortune 50) Companies Increased R&D Focus on ST-MRAM in Advanced Technology Nodes (40/28nm and beyond) Mass-Proliferation of ST-MRAM through GLOBALFOUNDRIES Partnership Optimizing MRAM Technology for Embedded Integration Embedded MRAM 4 SEMICON Taipei
Part One- Solving Manufacturing Challenges ST-MRAM background 64Mb in-plane ST-MRAM in Production 64Mb with pmtj 256Mb and 1Gb ST-MRAM on 300mm Manufacturing Summary 5 SEMICON Taipei
ST-MRAM Technology Write with current passing through the MTJ Higher memory density with shrinking MTJ bit size Perpendicular MTJ (pmtj) bits enable higher density compared to in- plane MTJ (imtj) bits 6 SEMICON Taipei
In-plane vs Perpendicular ST-MRAM In-plane Perpendicular Magnetic thin films want to be inplane magnetized (de-magnetization fields) Stable states defined bit shape: limits of shape anisotropy requires larger bits for good data retention The reference layer is pinned and the anti-parallel configuration of the SAF is intrinsically stable Few materials with stable magnetization direction perpendicular to the film plane Energy barrier is determined by the material and not shape of the bits. Can achieve high Eb with small bits Pinning is less effective and not used. It is possible to break the SAF causing hard failure of the device 7 SEMICON Taipei
64Mb in-plane ST-MRAM in Production 200mm, 90nm node Si SEMICON Taipei
ST-MRAM is in Production and Proven in the Market Spin Torque MTJ bit (in plane) MTJ bit is integrated in the last 2 Cu layers 9 SEMICON Taipei
Switching distribution plots The programming voltage Vw of an array of bits for a given write error rate is higher than the average switching voltage Vc 10 SEMICON Taipei
Applied voltage (a.u.) High-speed switching of 64Mb ST-MRAM Mb fails Energy barrier : 75-80kT 0 fails 64Mb in-plane, 90nm technology ECC-off Large operating window of write voltages and pulse durations Transition to dynamical regime for pulses less than 15ns Perfect programming with sub-10ns pulses Pulse duration (ns) 11 SEMICON Taipei
Vup/Vdn Shmoo Plot of 64Mb ST-MRAM 64Mb in-plane, 90nm technology ECC-off Large operating window of write voltages Good margin in both directions 12 SEMICON Taipei
Endurance 64Mb imtj parts have better than 1e9 full memory cycles of endurance. 13 SEMICON Taipei
64Mb Perpendicular ST-MRAM 200mm, 90nm node Si SEMICON Taipei
Switching Distributions Vc %sigma Hc %sigma Wafer 1 Wafer 2 Wafer 3 Wafer 1 Wafer 2 Wafer 3 3 As expected, distributions are tighter with pmtj bits 15 SEMICON Taipei
Write error rate (sigma) Switching Reliability of Large Arrays CFB based free layers with increasing PMA In-plane free layer In-plane free layer with excessive PMA Perpendicular free layer Excessive PMA causes unreliable switching for inplane free layer Switching reliability of fully perpendicular free layers exceeds that of in-plane free layers Applied voltage (a.u.) Applied voltage (a.u.) Applied voltage (a.u.) 16 SEMICON Taipei
VcSigma (%) Switching Distributions imtj and pmtj Switching distributions from integrated arrays Large improvement for pmtj Very good distributions down to 50nm diameter 50nm imtj pmtj 150nm Area (μm²) Area (μm²) 17 SEMICON Taipei
Up pulse width (~ns) Shmoo Plot Up Pulse vs Voltage(bit) 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 0 33554432 33554432 33554432 30097314 9741693 9629231 9622972 9596333 9587146 9598462 9591829 9619257 4 33554432 33554432 33376029 3780715 9919 9396 9393 9685 9899 10164 10003 9793 8 33554432 33554391 21574920 5169 2 4 5 3 1 1 5 1 12 33554432 33544305 8170296 108 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 16 33554432 33137413 1724463 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 20 33554427 31773690 307570 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 24 33554381 29093611 22806 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 28 33554236 26331382 3958 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 32 33553573 22780349 794 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 33551822 19911596 300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 33547678 16728811 182 0 0 0 1 0 3 1 0 0 44 33540898 14203992 99 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 48 33527714 11599678 54 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 52 33510350 9664885 31 2 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 1 56 33480185 7763380 17 0 1 3 1 1 4 1 3 0 60 33446715 6599002 25 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 2 Achieving Zero bit fails with ECC On V bit ECC on 18 SEMICON Taipei
300mm Development 256Mb In-plane ST-MRAM, 40nm node Si 1Gb Perpendicular ST-MRAM, 28nm node Si SEMICON Taipei
First pass success on 300mm with In-plane MTJs Yielding bits Non-yielding bits Measured SGPC structures on first 256Mb wafers with MTJs Bit contact Center shows good bit contact Edge shows shorted and open bits Oxide CMP optimization will address edge fails 20 SEMICON Taipei
Resistance (a.u.) Switching probability Successful Demonstration of MTJ Device Arrays on MTJs High speed switching 2 1.9 1.8 1.7 1.6 1.5 1.4 1.3 1.2 1.1 1-6 -4-2 0 2 4 6 Field (a.u.) 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 Voltage (a.u.) 21 SEMICON Taipei
Summary Fully-functional 64Mb DDR3 ST-MRAM 90nm node in production In-plane MTJ material optimized for low Vc and good switching In-plane technology successfully transferred to GF 300mm for 256Mb product on 40nm node. Perpendicular MTJ development focus on 300mm Several similarities in process and materials between imtj and pmtj 35% improvement in distributions compared to in-plane Scaling to 1Gb product on 300mm, 28nm node Si 22 SEMICON Taipei
Part Two- Bringing MRAM to the Mainstream The MRAM Market Opportunity Everspin Takes MRAM to the Mainstream MRAM is Proven and Shipping Embedded MRAM Conclusion 23 SEMICON Taipei
The Market for MRAM 256K MRAM 1M MRAM 4M MRAM 16M MRAM 64M QSPI (in dev) 64M DDR3 256M (in test) 1Gb (in dev) 4Gb (future) Instantly Recoverable Transportation Systems Power Fail Safety for HDD and RAID Fault-Recoverable Industrial Automation More Reliable Storage, File, & Backup Systems Rapid, Low Latency Enterprise Storage & Networks Secure & Reliable Smart Grid Mainstream Persistent DRAM in Consumer Applications 24 TAM compilation from Everspin, Semicast, Databeans, & Markets&Markets
Expanding Market Opportunity as MRAM is Accepted and Proven 7 Yrs MRAM Production 50 M Cumulative MRAM Shipments 100+ 200+ 500+ Customer Apps Design Wins Per Year Everspin Customers 25 SEMICON Taipei
MRAM is Proven and Shipping 300mm Wafer Production of Everspin MRAM Products ST-MRAM process transfer successful Initial 256Mb 40nm product is functional Acceleration of pmtj based products in 28nm and smaller Versatile embedded memory with emram Strategic Investment DDR3 and DDR4 controller optimization NVMe and storage protocol optimization Evaluation platforms and technology demos 26 Meeting the quality and supplier excellence needs of leading storage, industrial, and automotive customers
ST-MRAM is Replacing Persistent DRAM Solutions by Improving Latency while Reducing Design Complexity and System Cost The Memory Gap Super Caps Power Loss Circuitry Enterprise SSD OLD NAND Flash + Controller (Terabytes) DDR SDRAM + Super Caps + Power Loss Circuitry (Gigabytes or Megabytes) (ms Latency) NEW 27 NAND Flash + Controller (Terabytes) SEMICON Taipei Everspin s DDR ST-MRAM (Gigabytes or Megabytes) (µs Latency)
Scalability & Versatility: emram can Replace Multiple Embedded Memory Types through Bit Cell Design Optimization Versatility by Design: emram is unique in that the bit cell design can be modified for optimization as a replacement for Embedded FLASH, DRAM, SRAM or a combination up to all three. As Embedded FLASH: emram offers Better Endurance, Bandwidth, and Energy As Embedded SRAM, DRAM: emram offers Smaller and with Non-Volatility As Embedded Flash + SRAM: emram replaces program code + execute code + storage space with one memory 28 SEMICON Taipei
Where We re Heading 2X Toggle MRAM Revenue by 2017 $100M ST-MRAM Revenue by 2018 21Bu emram TAM by 2018 Source: IC Insights 125ºC AEC-Q100 Grade 1, Cost-Down, QSPI Reliability for Harsh Environments such as Auto, Aerospace, Transportation 300mm Capacity, Gigabit+ Densities Data Integrity and Security in Cloud Compute, Storage, and Server Major Foundry, Turn-Key Macro, Beyond 40nm MCU, GPU, ARM serving IoT, Mobile, Networking, Auto, Industrial 29 SEMICON Taipei
Bringing MRAM to the Mainstream: Discrete and Embedded MRAM is penetrating the discrete mainstream memory market. The Market for Persistent RAM will be >$2B by 2018. MRAM is the ideal next-generation mainstream embedded memory. Market potential for Embedded MRAM is greater than 20 Billion units worldwide by 2018. MRAM is scalable and versatile, beyond existing eflash (40nm) and esram (20nm) solutions. Everspin is the MRAM Company and the only company: To bring MRAM to the market, both discrete and embedded (7 years, 50Mu+) With 200mm and 300mm (GLOBALFOUNDRIES) MRAM production lines With a commercialized Spin Torque MRAM solution (64Mb) & roadmap to Gigabit density Enabling embedded ST-MRAM (300mm, advanced technology nodes) 30 SEMICON Taipei
THANK YOU 31 SEMICON Taipei