Freescale spinoff boasts new line

A new East Valley-based technology company spun off in June from Freescale Semiconductor is introducing its first line of new products that it hopes will revolutionize the market for memory chips.

The new lineup of seven chips produced by Everspin Technologies will take up less space on circuit boards and will drive the semiconductor chips into smaller consumer products such as high-end camcorders, said Saied Tahrani, Everspin's chief operating officer.

The technology, called magnetoresistive random access memory, or MRAM, combines magnetic materials with silicon on the same chip and uses magnetism instead of an electric charge to store information. It has the advantages of speed and the ability to store information even if power is lost.

Freescale decided to spin off the technology to a separate company because it was not part of the company's core business, and a separate entity could accelerate its development, Tahrani said.

"That's what this announcement today is about," he said. "We have now expanded our portfolio, and it allows us to get into additional markets and serve additional customers."

Previously MRAM chips were used primarily in servers that stored large amounts of information, the type of equipment used in large data centers.

The new lineup, because of the chips' smaller sizes, can be used in smaller products such as industrial camcorders, where the MRAM chips will store the camera settings, Tahrani said. As the technology improves, the company anticipates moving into other markets such as industrial automation, consumer, gaming and transportation equipment, he said.

Freescale introduced the first MRAM chip in 2006, and Everspin is still the only company producing MRAMs commercially.

When the new company was created in June by Freescale and five venture capital firms, Everspin acquired specialized equipment needed to make the chips and about 50 engineers and technicians. Everspin leases space at Freescale's complex at 1300 N. Alma School Road in Chandler for its headquarters and production fab.

With sales growing at a rate of about 300 percent a year, Tahrani anticipates the company will expand to 60 employees by the end of 2009.

So far the economic slowdown hasn't had a major impact, but he admitted that major customers are becoming more cautious.

Will Strauss, a Tempe-based technology market analyst, said Everspin is in a good market position because it has no direct competitors.

He said the process of putting magnetic material on top of silicon is a tricky one, and other companies that have dabbled in it such as IBM and Toshiba have not yet put the technology into high-volume production.

"It's a niche market, and it may stay a niche market forever," he said. "But it could be a very lucrative one."