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Crocus Technology, founded in 2004, is a venture-capital-backed semiconductor startup company developing next generation magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) technology. Crocus owns the exclusive license to MRAM technology, and is the only company offering complete 2nd generation MRAM technology.

Products and technologies
Crocus plans to enter the market as a supplier of semiconductor memory chips, and as a licensor of MRAM process and design technology to fabless semiconductor companies, wafer foundries, and integrated device manufacturers (IDM’s). Target applications include storage, telecommunications, mobile devices, and networking. Crocus pioneered the application of Thermal Assisted Switching (TAS) to scalable MRAM technology. While current MRAM technologies have encountered problems with write selectivity, power consumption and thermal stability, TAS offers the promise of solving those problems mainly through temperature manipulation of the magnetic susceptibility in the memory cell. The company is working to merge TAS technology with advanced Spin Torque Transfer (STT) technology for use with advanced feature-size semiconductor processes.

Patents
The company has a strong intellectual property position with approximately 30 patents supporting the product and technology portfolio. Crocus also has a long-term exclusive license to MRAM-related intellectual property developed at Spintec, CNRS, and CEA.

Joint ventures
On June 22, 2011, Crocus announced a new technology called Magnetic-Logic Unit (MLU) architecture, built on their existing Thermal Assisted Switching (TAS) technology. This technology can be used to make ultra-secure functions such as smart cards, identity cards, SIM cards, and near-field communications (NFC) tamper-proof. The technology can operate at very high temperatures, making it useful in automotive and industrial electronics. MLU has the potential to replace a variety of other memory technologies such as SRAM, DRAM, NAND, NOR, and OTP. On May 17, 2011, Crocus announced a joint venture with Rusnano, a Russian state-owned technology investment fund. The new venture, Crocus Nano Electronics (CNE) plans to invest US$125 million to build an advanced MRAM manufacturing plant in Russia. Additional funding to a projected total of US$300 million will be used to expand capacity of the plant after it begins production. On June 18, 2009, Crocus Technology announced a partnership with Tower Semiconductor, Ltd., a leading global specialty foundry. As part of the deal, both companies will dedicate special equipment in Tower’s factory, and Tower will fully manufacture Crocus’ MRAM technology in its 200mm Fab2 facility. Tower has also taken a $1.25 million equity position in Crocus.

Investors
Major investors include Rusnano, a Russian government-funded corporation that is aimed at commercializing developments in nanotechnology, and CEA Investissement, a company under the CEA that specializes in seed technology companies.

Other investors include Idinvest Partners, CDC Innovation , Entreprises et Patriomoine , NanoDimension , Sofinnova Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, and Ventech.