Magnetic Solutions today announced that it has shipped an MRT1000 magnetic annealing system to a leading Asian supplier of memory chips for use in their MRAM development line. The MRT1000 will be used to anneal 8" (200mm) wafers in a high magnetic field so as to develop the necessary exchange interactions between the magnetic layers in an MRAM chip.

"The customer selected the MRT1000 after extensive evaluation of several competing systems on the basis of process control, throughput and cost of ownership. The MRT1000 is the only system available that uses rare-earth permanent magnets to set the direction of magnetization across the 8" (200mm) wafer and the same permanent magnet platform is forward compatible with the processing of 12" (300mm) wafers" said Eamonn Cullen C.T.O. of Magnetic Solutions. During wafer processing permanent magnets consume zero power and require no maintenance - a very attractive combination to semiconductor fab managers and production engineers.

Cullen continued " Magnetic Solutions continues to increase its presence in Asia adding now to sales already achieved in Japan and other Asian countries. These early successes in Asia testify to our committment to build a worldwide customer base and effectively service this going forward." Magnetic Annealing is a key requirement in order to optimize the change in magnetic resistance, the key non-volatile data storage mechanism for MRAM.

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Magnetic Solutions, a privately held company based in Dublin, Ireland with offices in the USA, Korea, Japan and Taiwan, is a leading developer of process technology used in the manufacture of magneto-electonic devices such as MRAM, a non-volatile memory chip, GMR sensors used in data storage.

Since its introduction in 2000, the MRT1000 system has become the industry leading magnetic annealing technology for MRAM providing exceptional reliability, low cost of ownership, fast cycle times and is used by leading semiconductor companies in the USA, Europe, Korea and Japan.

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