The current mainstream storage equipment can be roughly divided into two categories: One is represented by the traditional internal storage such as DRAM or HM, which is fast in reading and writing but volatile (the data can be lost easily when the power is cut off suddenly); the other one is represented by the traditional Flash Memory – Flash, which is non-volatile but slow in reading and writing.

But MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory) takes account of both non-volatility and high-speed of reading and writing simultaneously. Since the magnetism of ferromagnet will almost never be lost, MRAM can be rewritten almost indefinitely. When the power is cut off, the recorded data is still stored in the magnetic unit, so that the data won’t be lost. Besides that, the energy consumption is relatively low when it is doing ultra-high speed reading and writing.

From the features of MRAM chip technology, we can see that it can solve many problems such as slow startup of our PCs or mobile phones, data loss, slow data loading, short battery life and so on, which of course will change the way consumers using electronic devices. Therefore, MARM is considered to be a substitute for most mobile phones, PCs, mobile hardware and other digital products.

But there are some shortcomings such as the production process of MRAM is complex, its size will grow bigger with the increase of its storage capacity, the cost of its production is so high that it is hard to start a mass production and so on. Such shortcomings keep the market investors away. 

According to the investigation made by the V-Capital investment team: So far, only two American semiconductor companies, TDK and Everspin, are able to produce MRAM. SCIT, which was built up in 2014, is the first company to develop and manufacture MRAM in China.

The main product which SCIT is working on now is 40nm processing high density vertical structure magnetic random access memory (pSTT-MRAM). This chip uses two nanoscale ferromagnets, which generate high and low magnetic reluctance through spin polarized current, which respectively represent 1 and 0 of computer language, used for image-text and audio-visual access.

As we all know, the disadvantages of traditional memory (DRAM) are high power consumption and volatility, and as for the traditional flash memory (FLASH), it has short service life and low reliability, but pSTT-MRAM overcomes the shortcomings of both DRAM and FLASH, and it has the advantages of non-volatility, high reliability, ultra-low power consumption and long service life. Compared with the planar STT-MRAM structure, the vertical structure effectively reduces the size of the device, which creates a possibility for high integration.

Furthermore, only ferromagnet, the core component of MRAM, needs to be made by special equipment. And SCIT is the only company in China that possesses the pSTT-MRAM’ exclusive equipment for both 12 inch film manufacturing/testing and 12 inch etching.

Wang Jianshi, the founder and CEO of SCIT told 36 Kr: “The global market of storage devices is over hundreds of billions of dollars, most of which is generated from China’s imports of high-performance storage such as DRAM and HM. It can be predicted that China’s demand for high-performance storage is very large, but the key to the mass production of MRAM lies in improving the yield and reducing the production cost.

At present, MRAM is mainly applied in Solid State Disk, so as to achieve a large improvement in the performance of Solid State Disk. Solid State Disk is also the starting product of SCIT, but SCIT hopes to take the path of differential application: to research and develop MRAM storage suitable for AI devices and IOT (internet of things) devices. 

It is reported that all of the 10 Dr. returnees in the core team of SCIT are from semiconductor companies such as TDK, Everspin and so forth. SCIT has won 22 patents approved by both China and the US such as some related materials, line design, product architecture, new CPU architecture, image processing, VR and embedded MCU, and so on.

Aside from SCIT, in the semiconductor field, the V-Capital and its associated enterprises also invested in Gyrfalcon Technology Inc. (GTI) -- the world’s first mass production terminal inference AI chip manufacturer, Montage Technology -- analogue and mixed-signal chip supplier, and Vertilite -- vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) supplier and so forth.