Crocus Nano Electronics (CNE) has raised $60 million in additional capital from its investors.Most of the funding comes from Rusnano, a Russian government-funded corporation to commercialize developments in nanotechnologies.
The new funding will enable CNE to finalize construction and equipment installation in Russia’s first-ever 300 mm fab for MRAM (magnetoresistive random access memory) manufacturing and includes monies for complete procurement and installation of all capital equipment to support factory operations.
The funding is intended to accelerate the Crocus Generation 3 technology transfer from Crocus Technology operations in Grenoble, France, and Santa Clara, Calif., through the end of 2014.
“With this new capital, we are now fully funded to deliver the last key milestone in the implementation of Russia’s first-ever 300 mm fab,” said Mark Dydyk, CEO of CNE.
Currently, magnetic layers can be deposited on 200 mm and 300 mm CMOS wafers to create memory cells. CNE is ramping up with the objective to turn out 500 wafers per week by the end of 2014.
Last week, CNE's board of directors toured the state-of-the-art semiconductor factory in Technopolis Moscow, where the company is expecting to eventually expand capacity up to 1,000 wafers per week, according to Crocus spokesperson.
In addition, CNE and Crocus Technology plan to create a Learning Center and a Development Ecosystem for advanced memory design and production in the Russian Federation.
In October 2011, Crocus and IBM entered a joint development and cross-license agreement to develop magnetic semiconductor technology that combines Crocus’ MLU (magnetic logic unit) technology with IBM’s MRAM materials and processing capabilities.
Crocus’s MLU architecture has achieved breakthroughs in magnetic memory implementation, including highly robust secure embedded memory, ultra-high-temperature (greater than 200 C) non-volatile memory (NVM) operation and scaling to sub-20 nm manufacturing.
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