June 12, 2007 — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has notified NVE Corporation, Eden Prairie, Minn., of the expected grant of a patent titled “Thermomagnetically Assisted Spin-Momentum-Transfer Switching Memory,” relating to magneto-thermal and spin-momentum transfer MRAM inventions.
Magnetothermal MRAM uses a combination of ultra-fast magnetic fields and heat pulses, both from electrical current. Spin-momentum transfer is a method of changing the spin of storage electrons directly with an electrical current rather than an induced magnetic field. Both technologies may have the potential to reduce the energy required to write data and allow reduction of the memory cell size while maintaining thermal stability.
The grant brings NVE’s U.S. patent total to 42. The company has more than 100 patents worldwide issued, pending, or licensed from others. Links to the new patent and NVE’s other U.S.patents can be found at the “About NVE” section of the company’s Website.
NVE is a leader in commercialization of spintronics, a nanotechnology that 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 sensing and transmission.