Technology In Enterprise

On Nov. 12, Everspin Corp. announced that they have begun giving some customers 64Mbit MRAM chips based on the Spin Transfer Torque (STT) switching technology (STT-MRAM).  This technology is being actively worked on by quite a few companies.  It uses magnetic tunnel junctions, like current Toggle MRAM and magnetic recording read heads, but the reversals of the magnetic free layer (corresponding to 0’s and 1’s depending on the two possible directions) is accomplished by the spin of the electrons rather than by an external magnetic field.  This reduces the amount of current required to switch between 0’s and 1’s and should lead to devices that actually work better the smaller they are.

Everspin has had a technology called Toggle MRAM in production for some years, and now is the first company to begin sampling the new STT-MRAM technology.

More details can be found at The Memory Guy blog (http://thememoryguy.com/everspin-samples-first-stt-mram/#more-453 ) and at Everspin’s website on http://www.everspin.com/PDF/ST-MRAM_Press_Release.pdf  and in a technical brief (http://www.everspin.com/PDF/ST-MRAM_Technical_Brief.pdf ) and presentation (http://www.everspin.com/PDF/ST-MRAM_Presentation.pdf ).

In StorageNewsletter.com, dated 4 October, the online journal published an IBM press release (edited) regarding this new and long anticipated development in tape storage.

http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/tapes/ibm-lto-6-ts1060

 

LTO-6 as IBM has implemented it will have a tape cartridge with 2.5TB native (uncompressed) capacity and a data rate of 160MB/sec.  The IBM system supports 2.5:1 compression for up to 6.25TB capacity.  The press release gives more details, of course.  StorageNewsletter has an interesting comment section at the bottom of the article that has both more details about the LTO history and roadmap and their opinions about it.  If you are interested in the tape storage world you should read their comments.

http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/tapes/ibm-lto-6-ts1060#analysis

 

Announced in January 2012

IBM researchers at Almaden Research Center in San Jose, the Max Planck Institute and the University of Basel have demonstrated the storage of data at a near-atomic scale.  One bit was stored in 12 atoms and was shown to be stable for several hours at cryogenic temperature (0.5K).  More details can be found in the articles linked to here.  Basically, a Scanning Tunneling Microscope was used to move Fe atoms into two adjacent lines of six atoms on a surface.  The Fe atoms used were, of course, and their interactions created an anti-ferromagnetic alignment pattern.  It was shown that this arrangement could be reversed (e.g., from +-+-+- to -+-+-+ in each row) by using the STM tip to reverse an atom at the end of a row.  Groups of such islands of 12 atoms could be arranged in an array on a surface (similar to the bit-patterned media concept);  because each island is anti-ferromagnetic, they will be non-interacting with even a small space between islands.  The resulting recording density (and resulting hard disk drive capacity) is potentially about 100X greater than today’s disk drives, meaning it would be between 50-100 Terabits per square inch, and what is today a 1 Terabyte drive could hold up to 100 TB!

Of course, this is a proof of concept for the storage and is very far from a commercial possibility, at present.  (For instance, you can’t put a scanning tunneling microscope in a disk drive, nor operate at -272.5◦C.)  Still, that’s the way most new technologies start life!

Ed Murdock

Technical Paper:

“Bistability in Atomic-Scale Antiferromagnets,” Loth, et al., Science, 196-199 (13 January 2012)

DOI:10.1126/science.1214131

Abstract:  http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6065/196.abstract?sid=bee32136-8030-4897-afb4-e4e17ece2291

Basic online articles: 

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/36473.wss

http://m.ibm.com/http/www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_computing/article/atomic_scale_memory.html?goback=.gmp_3992318.gde_3992318_member_167160535

More Details:  http://ibmresearchalmaden.tumblr.com/

You Tube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpKMShooDBo

BioNanoMed 2013                        13-15 March,

4^th International Conference

Nanotechnology, Medicine, Biology

Krems/Austria

http://www.bionanomed.at/   and   http://www.bionanomed.at/index.php?id=10

Sounds interesting!  -EM

– the exclusive Know-How-Transfer meeting for scientists, researchers, engineers and practitioners from Natural Science, Medical Science and Engineering Subjects throughout the world.

The congress in organized in  program tracks based on related technology topics.

Topics

- Novel Nanomedical Solutions – Advances in Nanomedicine

- Regenerative Nanomedicine

- Nano- Bio-Technology based Diagnostics

- Nano- Bio-Technology based Therapy

Thematic Sessions

- Aspects of NanoSafety

- Nano- Imaging-Technologies in Medicine

Panel Discussion

- Nanotechnology in Pharmacy – Future Perspectives?

Special Symposium

- Nanotechnology in Artificial Organ Support

  (Organized by ESAO – European Society for Artificial Organs)

Exhibition

BioNanoMed 2013 serves as an excellent platform to present your company/institution, to promote your product portfolio and to establish direct links to a broad audience of experts.

8th International Symposium on Metallic Multilayers (MML2013)

Date: May 19 (Sun.) – 24 (Fri.), 2013
Venue: Kyoto Research Park, Kyoto, Japan

The LXVII Yamada Conference, “The 8th International Symposium on Metallic Multilayers (MML2013)”, takes place at the Kyoto Research Park, Kyoto, Japan, during May 19-24 2013, after previous symposia of this series held in 1993 in Kyoto, 1995 in Cambridge, 1998 in Vancouver, 2001 in Aachen, 2004 in Boulder , 2007 in Perth and 2010 in Berkeley.
Registration and abstract submission are now open.

http://www.mml2013.jp/index.html

MML2013 organizing committee
mml@krp.co.jp

31 Oct – 2 Nov 2012               Asia-Pacific Magnetic Recording Conference APMRC 2012

Singapore

Web site:  apmrc2012.dsi.a-star.edu.sg

 

14-18 January 2013               12^th Joint MMM/INTERMAG Conference

Chicago, IL, USA

Web site:  www.magnetism.org

 

7-8 February 2013                  Magnetics 2013

Rosen Plaza, Orlando, FL

Web site:  www.magneticsmagazine.com/conferences

 This two-day conference is a leading global event focused on the latest economic developments and technical advancements in magnetics markets and technologies bringing together worldwide magnetics experts. This is a once-a-year opportunity for professionals involved in magnetics technologies to learn the latest advancements in magnetic applications, technology and materials as well as global issues of supply, demand and pricing of magnetic materials.

3-7 March 2013                      TMS 2013, 142nd ANNUAL MEETING & EXHIBITION

Gonzales Convention Center, San Antonio, TX

Web site:  www.tms.org/meetings/annual-13/AM13home.aspx

Annual Conference of The Metals, Minerals and Materials Society (TMS)

Featuring a Special Symposium:

“Magnetic Materials for Energy Applications”,

The third year of the series will be organized this year by Sivaraman Guruswamy, Thomas G. Woodcock, Yongmei Jin, Raju V. Ramanujan, Frank Johnson, and Oliver Gutfleisch.  During the previous two years, this topic has attracted a large amount of participants and is serving to increase the involvement of magnetic researchers in the activities of the TMS.  The program of this year broadens the topic by including energy harvesting in the scope and I am convinced of its continuing success.

 

2-4 June 2013                          2013 Meeting:  Frontiers in Biomagnetic Particles

Telluride, Colorado

Website:  http://www.clemson.edu/magmeet

 This conference should be of interest to many.  Topics include, but are not limited to:

•Biomedical imaging and sensing

•Magnetic separations

•Drug delivery, hyperthermia, and biomedical applications

The meeting is organized by Dr. Jeffrey Anker and Dr. Thompson Mefford, both from Clemson University, and the meeting will be held at the Telluride Science Research Center.