Samsung’s eMRAM will further strengthen the company’s technology
leadership in embedded memory

SEOUL, South Korea–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in semiconductor
technology, today announced that it has commenced mass production of its
first commercial embedded magnetic random access memory (eMRAM) product
based on the company’s 28-nanometer (nm) fully-depleted
silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) process technology, called 28FDS.

As eFlash has faced scalability challenges due to a charge storage-based
operation, eMRAM has been the most promising successor since its
resistance-based operation allows strong scalability while also
possessing outstanding technical characteristics of memory
semiconductors such as nonvolatility, random access, and strong
endurance. With today’s announcement, Samsung has proved its capability
to overcome technical hurdles and demonstrated the possibility for
further scalability of embedded memory technology to 28nm process node
and beyond.

Samsung’s 28FDS-based eMRAM solution offers unprecedented power and
speed advantages with lower cost. Since eMRAM does not require an erase
cycle before writing data, its writing speed is approximately a thousand
times faster than eFlash. Also, eMRAM uses lower voltages than eFlash,
and does not consume electric power when in power-off mode, resulting in
great power efficiency.

Furthermore, since an eMRAM module can easily be inserted in the
back-end of the process by adding the least number of layers, it has
less dependence on the front-end of the process for easy integration
with existing logic technologies, such as bulk, fin, and FD-SOI
transistor. With this plug-in module concept, customers can enjoy the
benefit of reutilizing existing design infrastructure even with this
added new technology, eMRAM, and saving costs at the same time.

By combining with 28FD-SOI for better transistor control and minimizing
leakage current through body-bias control, Samsung’s eMRAM solution will
provide differentiated benefits for a variety of applications including
micro controller unit (MCU), internet of things (IoT), and artificial
intelligence (AI).

“We are very proud of this achievement in offering right embedded
non-volatile memory (eNVM) technology after overcoming complicated
challenges of new materials,” said Ryan Lee, vice president of foundry
marketing at Samsung Electronics. “By integrating eMRAM with existing
proven logic technologies, Samsung Foundry continues to expand its eNVM
process portfolio to provide distinct competitive advantages and
excellent manufacturability to meet customers and market requirement.”

A ceremony to celebrate this first shipment of eMRAM product will be
held on March 6 at Samsung’s Giheung campus, Korea. Samsung plans to
expand its options for high-density eNVM solutions, including a tape-out
of 1Gb eMRAM test chip within this year.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative
ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs,
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systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions. For the
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Contacts

Clara Lee
Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd.
[email protected]