Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAM) have long been

Magnetic Random Access Memories for the Internet of Things
Jean-Pierre Nozieres, Virgile Javerliac, Fabrice Bernard-Granger, Christophe Layer, Pierre
Paoli, Stephane Gros
Spintec, Université Grenoble-Alpes, CEA-INAC, CNRS, CEA-Grenoble, 25 rue des Martyrs,
38025 Grenoble Cedex, France
eVaderis SA, Minatec Entreprises BHT – Bâtiment 52 – 7 Parvis Louis Néel –
38040 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
Magnetic Random Access Memories (MRAM) have long been developed for memory
applications, from DRAM to embedded Flash / embedded SRAM replacement. Little has
been reported, however, on MRAM-based non volatile logic in which memory instances are
distributed all across the chip. Initially promoted for normally-off / instant-on computing,
non-volatile logic seems particularly well suited for the Internet-Of-Things where wireless,
battery operated devices must combine a high computing power and long battery lifetime. In
this presentation, we show that perpendicular spin transfer torque (p-STT) technology is well
suited for IoT application, even at large technology nodes. We then propose the concept of a
control processor embedding multiple memory instances and show through a few user cases
how this can drastically reduce the overall chip power consumption.