The EU-funded GREAT project presents its first hybrid CMOS-MRAM 180nm tape out

In 2015, the EU launched the GREAT project, with an aim to co-integrate multiple functions like sensors, RF receivers and logic/memory together within CMOS by adapting STT-MTJs to a single baseline technology in the same system on chip. GREAT stands for heteroGeneous integRated magnetic tEchnology using multifonctionnal stAndardized sTack.

The project partners now announced the first hybrid CMOS/MSS-MRAM Tape Out with Israel-based Tower Jazz. This hybrid integrated circuit uses the 180nm CMOS process from Tower and an academic MRAM post-process that will be done by CEA Spintec within their facilities.

This demonstrator embeds several different functional blocks, all based on Multifunctional Standardized Stack Magnetic Tunnel Junctions: some are dedicated to RF applications, some use specific non-volatile digital cells and others are more dedicated to magnetic sensors. The next phase is to test and the blocks and characterize the hybrid CMOS/MRAM process. Results are expected by the second quarter of 2017.

The GREAT project partners inclues CEA Spintec, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Laboratoire d’Informatique, de Robotique et de Microélectronique de Montpellier (LIRMM), Universitatea Transilvania din Brasov (UTBV), Technische Universität Dresde (TUD), Singulus Technologies AG, Tower Jazz, eVaderis and Toplink Innovation.