MRAM firm Crocus names Cambou as CEO

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Crocus Technology Inc., a developer of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) technology, has named Bertrand Cambou as chief executive and chairman, effective immediately.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company also announced that it had received an 8 million euro ($10.6 million) investment from its leading investors.

Most recently, Cambou served as president of Silicon Storage Technology Inc. (SST), which was acquired in April 2010 by Microchip Technology Inc. In previous roles, he served as president and chief executive of Spansion Inc.

The company also disclosed that it has secured a new round of financing with lead investors. The 8 million euro ($10.6 million) investment will be used to complete the production transfer of its 130-nm MRAM technology to manufacturing partner Tower Semiconductor Ltd. and for continued product development.

Investors participating in this financing include AGF Private Equity, CDC Innovation, CEA Investissement, Nanodimension, Sofinnova Ventures, and Ventech.

Crocus was first incorporated in France in 2004 with an initial grant from CEA Valorisation and FIST, the subsidiaries of CEA and CNRS, France's leading research organizations, dedicated to spinning off promising new technologies into the private sector. The MRAM technology that is the foundation on which Crocus is built was developed in the Grenoble-based Spintec research center.

Crocus claims to be developing a second-generation spin-torque MRAM technology, which promises to scale beyond 90-nm. The company is devising both standalone devices and IP.

''The leading candidates for workable second generation MRAM technologies are called Thermal Assisted Switching (TAS) and spin torque,'' according to a paper from the company.

Crocus is pursing TAS technology, which can be applied to both field-induced and spin torque schemes. Moving closer to commercial production, MRAM startup Crocus last year received new funding and expanded its foundry alliance with Israel's Tower.