TowerJazz and Crocus Expand Presence in Magnetic Sensors Market through Successful Licensing of Crocus’ IP and Volume Manufacturing by TowerJazz

Crocus TMR sensors offer important advantages for multiple applications in IoT,  consumer, automotive, industrial and medical sectors

TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, and Crocus, a leading developer of TMR magnetic sensor technology and embedded MRAM, today announce volume manufacturing of Crocus TMR (Tunnel MagnetoResistance) sensors, using TowerJazz’s 0.13um CMOS process with a dedicated magnetic module in the Cu BEOL. With Crocus’ magnetic process, know-how and IP, and TowerJazz’s process technology and integration expertise, Crocus has successfully licensed the TMR technology to an automotive Tier 1 customer, bringing increased business to both companies.

According to a 2016 MarketsandMarkets report, the overall magnetic field sensors market was valued at USD $2.25 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach S4.16 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 8.87% between 2016 and 2022. The growth of this market is driven by the rising demand for MEMS-based sensors across industry verticals, surge in the automotive industry, increasing demand for high-quality sensing devices, and continuous growth in consumer electronics applications.

Magnetic transducers which sense magnetic field strength are widely used in modern industry and electronics to measure current, position, motion, direction, and other physical parameters. Crocus’ TMR technology is a CMOS-based, robust technology capable of offering important advantages in sensitivity, performance, power consumption, size and full integration with CMOS to create monolithic single die ICs. Benefits to customers come in the form of low power, a robust design and high temperature performance. Crocus TMR solutions are ideally suited for many applications ranging from IoT to consumer, medical, automotive and industrial equipment.

“We selected TowerJazz because of their high flexibility and capabilities to adapt their TS13 platform to incorporate our TMR technology which includes magnetic materials that are typically not used in CMOS. TowerJazz’s vast manufacturing expertise is enabling us to successfully fulfill the needs of several market sectors combined with increased performance required in next-generation sensors. TowerJazz has been our development partner for many years and together we have achieved technology maturity leading to expanded business and successful licensing of Crocus IP,” said Michel Desbard, Crocus CEO.

“As the demand for IoT applications in our daily life is ever-increasing, there is an even greater need for intelligent sensing, low power and improved performance. Crocus’ successful licensing of their IP, along with TowerJazz’s manufacturing capability and know-how, enables us to deliver highly-advanced and competitive embedded-solutions to multiple customers in various markets. Through our partnership with Crocus, we are broadening our presence in the sensors’ market, complementing our MEMS and image sensing programs,” said Zmira Shternfeld-Lavie, VP of TOPS BU and R&D Process Engineering.”

Crocus’s TMR magnetic sensor is expected to displace existing sensor technologies in many applications. Crocus’ TMR magnetic sensor product family includes multiple architectures which are based on its Magnetic Logic Unit™ (MLU™), a disruptive CMOS-based rugged magnetic technology.