editor's blog
Subscribe Now

Layering On

A long time ago we took a look at MRAM technology, and Crocus was one of the companies in play. Well, it’s been quiet since then. Lots of exotic memory ideas come in with a bang and quietly exit stage left at some point. Was MRAM going to be one of them?

Well, apparently not. At least not until Crocus finds a way to burn through a new $300M round of funding. For those of you struggling to get a measly $5M eleemosynary handout for a software venture, you’ve got to be shaking your head.

Of course, you know that that kind of money must involve capital, most likely a factory. And, in fact, the idea is to set up a back-end fab in Russia to add layers to standard CMOS wafers: those added layers will implement the magnetics (much the way a CMOS-last MEMS process builds on a pre-processed CMOS wafer). According to Crocus’s Barry Hoberman, there are three extra layers needed for the magnetics, plus one more metal/via layer.

The 90-/65-nm line should let them get up to 1G memories, perhaps beyond.

More funding details in their release

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Apr 24, 2026
A thought experiment in curiosity, confusion, and cosmic consequences....

featured paper

Quickly and accurately identify inter-domain leakage issues in IC designs

Sponsored by Siemens Digital Industries Software

Power domain leakage is a major IC reliability issue, often missed by traditional tools. This white paper describes challenges of identifying leakage, types of false results, and presents Siemens EDA’s Insight Analyzer. The tool proactively finds true leakage paths, filters out false positives, and helps circuit designers quickly fix risks—enabling more robust, reliable chip designs. With detailed, context-aware analysis, designers save time and improve silicon quality.

Click to read more

featured chalk talk

GaN for Humanoid Robots
Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and Infineon
In this episode of Chalk Talk, Eric Persson and Amelia Dalton explore why power is the key driver for efficient and reliable robot movements and how GaN technologies can help motor control solutions be more compact, integrated and efficient. They also investigate the role of field-oriented control in humanoid robotic applications and why the choice of a GaN power transistor can make all the difference in your next humanoid robot project!
Apr 20, 2026
10,166 views