NVE Wins Government Contract
to Develop Magneto-Thermal MRAM:
Technology promises one-gigabyte
low-power non-volatile memory
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.--August 4, 2003--NVE Corporation (NasdaqSC:
NVEC) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), administered
by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, to develop magneto-thermal
Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM). The contract is for $750,000
over two years and represents a continuation of NVE's government
funding to advance and commercialize MRAM.
MRAM uses spintronics--electrons' spin rather than their charge--to
store data, and is fabricated using nanotechnology. MRAM has the
potential of combining the speed of semiconductor memory with the
nonvolatility of magnetic disk drives, and could eventually replace
conventional memories. MRAM is inherently nonvolatile, meaning the
data remain even when power is removed.
Magneto-thermal MRAM would use a combination of magnetic fields
and ultra-fast heating from electrical current pulses to shrink
the stability-limited cell size and reduce the energy required to
write data. The project is to be compatible with a chip capacity
of one gigabit with 100-nanometer lithography, which would allow
MRAM to be fabricated at bit densities comparable to Dynamic Random
Access Memory (DRAM). DRAM is currently most common and largest
capacity semiconductor memory type.
"For MRAM to supplant DRAM in mainstream applications, both
cell size and write current need to be reduced," commented
NVE President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel A. Baker, Ph.D.
"Magneto-thermal MRAM addresses both issues, strengthening
the promise of MRAM as the ideal memory. This contract will help
bolster our intellectual property portfolio in this important area."
NVE has licensed MRAM intellectual property to several companies.
Current NVE licensees include Cypress Semiconductor Corporation,
Honeywell International, Union Semiconductor Technology Corporation,
and Motorola, Inc. Cypress and Motorola both demonstrated prototype
MRAMs in the past year, and both announced plans for product introductions
this calendar year. NVE has an agreement for Motorola to pay NVE
royalties, and a contract for Cypress to manufacture MRAMs for NVE.
NVE is a leader in the practical commercialization of spintronics,
which many experts believe represents the next generation of microelectronics.
NVE licenses its MRAM intellectual property and sells spintronic
products including sensors and couplers to revolutionize data acquisition
and transfer.
Statements used in this press release that relate to future
plans, events, financial results or performance are forward-looking
statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties including,
among others, such factors as the rate of adoption of MRAM, adoption
of our intellectual property, our ability to enforce our intellectual
property rights, the awarding of future government contracts, as
well as the risk factors listed from time to time in the company's
filings with the SEC, including the company's Annual Report on Form
10-KSB and other periodic reports filed with the SEC.
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