Intellectual property
NVE has been issued a US patent for a type of magnetic memory (MRAM). The "Current Switched Magnetoresistive Memory Cell" patent (No.6,744,086) concerns spin-momentum magnetic memory cells. The patent also relates to thermally-assisted spin-momentum writing.
A recent paper by researchers from both the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS) at Cornell University and NVE reported that spin momentum produces spin orientation using less current than present methods. The invention therefore has the potential to significantly reduce MRAM write currents with lithographic feature sizes of less than 100nm.
NVE hopes that this could enable MRAM cell densities comparable to those of DRAM or Flash. The findings were based on tests of "nanopillar" MRAM structures fabricated by CNS using material from NVE. NVE further believes that MRAM has the potential to combine the speed of SRAM, the density of DRAM and the non-volatility of Flash.
Mykrolis has filed a request with the US Boston district court that Pall be held in contempt of court. Mykrolis believes that Pall has defied the court's preliminary injunction order of April 30, 2004, that prohibits Pall from importing and selling certain photoresist filtering products or colourable imitations thereof. Pall is continuing to sell its EZD-3 products, which are claimed by Mykrolis to be renamed versions of the EZD-2 products. Both products are claimed to be subject to the preliminary injunction order on the basis of Mykrolis' patents. Pall is appealing this court order.
