Crocus Technology Assigned Patent

Crocus Technology SA, Grenoble, France, has been assigned a patent (8,988,935) developed by Prejbeanu, Ioan Lucian, Seyssinet-Pariset, France, and Mackay, Kenneth, Le Sappey-en-Chartreuse, France, for a “self-referenced MRAM cell and method for writing the cell using a spin transfer torque write operation.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The present disclosure concerns a method for writing to a self-referenced MRAM cell comprising a magnetic tunnel junction comprising: a storage layer including a first ferromagnetic layer having a first storage magnetization, a second ferromagnetic layer having a second storage magnetization, and a non-magnetic coupling layer separating the first and second ferromagnetic layers, a sense layer having a free sense magnetization, and a tunnel barrier layer included between the sense and storage layers, the first and second ferromagnetic layers being arranged such that a dipolar coupling between the storage) and the sense layers is substantially null, the method comprising: switching the second ferromagnetic magnetization by passing a spin-polarized current in the magnetic tunnel junction, wherein the spin-polarized current is polarized when passing in the sense layer, in accordance with the direction of the sense magnetization. The MRAM cell can be written with low power consumption.“

The patent application was filed on December 19, 2012 (13/720,232).