Angstrom (Å)
One ten-billionth of a meter or one-tenth of a nanometer. Some spintronic critical dimensions are less than 50 Angstroms (approximately 14 atomic layers).

Antiferromagnet
A material where the magnetic moments on each atom are opposite the adjacent atoms, so that the overall magnetic moment is always zero. Antiferromagnets are key spintronics building blocks and can be used to create “pinned” layers of permanent spin orientation or to store data.

Analog-to-Digital Convertor (A/D Convertor or ADC)
Devices commonly used to digitize sensors in industrial control systems. NVE offers unique four- and five-channel, 0.15"-wide single-chip spintronic couplers ideal for isolating serial ADC interfaces.

BioMagnetICs
A Department of Defense acronym for “Bio-Magnetic Interfacing Concepts.” The BioMagnetICs Program explores and demonstrates nanoscale magnetics for sensing at the cellular and ultimately single-molecule level. In 2004, NVE announced it had successfully demonstrated prototype BioMagnetICs for laboratory-on-a-chip applications using its spintronic structures.

Biosensor
A combination of “biologic” and “sensor,” referring to a device to detect biological or chemical materials using a sensor system containing a biological component. NVE has developed unique spintronic biosensors.

Coupler
A device which transmits data between electronic systems. NVE makes spintronic couplers that transmit information much faster than the fastest optical couplers. Couplers are also known as “isolators” because they electrically isolate the coupled systems.

Current Perpendicular-to-Plane (CPP) MRAM
An MRAM configuration where the write current is perpendicular to the storage layer, such as Vertical MRAM and spin-momentum MRAM. NVE has intellectual property relating to CPP MRAM.

DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory)
The largest-capacity and most common type of conventional memory. MRAM may have the potential to match DRAM bit density but with higher speed and nonvolatility.

Die (pl. dice)
1. Small elements sliced from wafers which are bonded into electrical circuits or mounted in packages.
2. What the competition does when they see NVE parts.

Electron Spin
Electrons have two stable spins (up and down). Electron spin causes magnetism on the atomic level; spintronics encodes data in electron spin.

Embedded Memory
Memory combined with other electronics on the same integrated circuit, such as a cellphone on a chip. It is virtually impossible to embed the various types of conventional memory required for a total system together on one IC; however, MRAM replaces all the different memory types (DRAM, SRAM, Flash), and can be embedded.

Ferromagnet
A material with the magnetic state of highly-ordered parallel electron spins.

Flash Memory
The leading conventional nonvolatile memory. Used in cellphones for permanent storage. Versions are used in memory cards and sticks, but these are much too slow for program execution. MRAM has the potential to meet and exceed flash bit density but with unlimited life and much higher speed.

Foundry Wafer
Wafers containing conventional electronics. Many NVE products add spintronic layers to foundry wafers that contain electronics for housekeeping functions such as voltage regulation and signal conditioning.

Free Layer
A layer in SDT or GMR structures where the spin polarization of electrons can be switched, usually by magnetic energy. This is the layer where data is sensed or stored.

Giant Magnetoresistor (GMR)
A spintronic device that produces a large change in resistance of a conducting layer. “Giant” refers to its very large electrical signal. GMR is at the heart of NVE’s sensors and couplers, and can also be used for a basic type of MRAM. In awarding the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of GMR, the Nobel Committee said, “GMR can be considered one of the first real applications of the promising field of nanotechnology.”

Gradiometer
A device that measures the change, or gradient, in magnetic field strength over a distance. NVE makes precise, single-chip gradiometers that can measure gradients from a fraction of a millimeter to several millimeters. Two devices can be used to measure the magnetic field gradient over almost any distance.

GT Sensor™
NVE’s unique rotational sensors, which are sensitive enough to detect tiny magnetic field perturbations from small gear teeth.

ISM
An acronym for the industrial, scientific, and medical electronics market, which is a market well served by NVE products.

Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD)
A device, intended to be permanently implanted into the body, capable of recognizing dangerously abnormal heart rhythms and delivering high-voltage to correct the condition. NVE spintronic sensors are used for telemetry links with implanted ICDs (definition adapted from St. Jude Medical, Inc.).

Intellectual Property (IP)
Patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other property that is created through the intellectual efforts of its creators. NVE intellectual property includes more than 100 patents worldwide either issued, pending or licensed from others.

Isolation
The electrical separation between the input and output and output of a device such as a coupler.

Isolation Voltage
A figure of merit in isolators and couplers, which is the maximum voltage that may be applied from input to output. NVE couplers have remarkable isolation voltages of 2,500 Volts in devices as small as three millimeters square.

Isolator
See coupler.

IsoLoop
NVE’s registered trademark for spintronic couplers. Refers to a microscopic coil combined with GMR elements. The coil creates a small magnetic field that is picked up by the GMR elements transmitting data almost instantly.

Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ)
See spin-dependent tunnel junction.

Magnetometers
A device that measures magnetic field strength, often in gauss. NVE sells ultraminiature magnetometers for a wide range of applications.

Magneto-Thermal (also M-T or Thermomagnetic) MRAM
An MRAM design that uses a combination of magnetic fields and ultra-fast heating from electrical current pulses to reduce the energy required to write data. NVE has patents and know-how in this area.

Mechatronics
The combination of mechanical and electronic systems, including robotics, industrial control, and factory automation. Mechanical systems include fluid power systems such as pneumatic cylinders; electronic systems include sensors, couplers, and control systems. NVE sensors and couplers enable faster, more precise mechatronics.

Memory
1. A device that stores information. Memories can be either volatile, meaning the data are lost when power is removed, or nonvolatile, where data are retained when power is removed. MRAM is nonvolatile.
2. A song from Cats sung by Grizabella the cat.

Micro-Small Outline Package (MSOP)
An industry-standard electronic device package designed to be automatically mounted onto a printed circuit board. An eight-pin MSOP is less than one-eighth inch square. NVE offers a number of MSOP sensors and couplers.

Minnesota
From a Dakota word meaning “sky-blue water.” Much of the region was part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803; NVE was founded 186 years later.

Monolithic
A device with all of its functions on a single die. Most complex integrated circuits such as microprocessors and memories are monolithic, but many couplers and sensors are not. NVE’s unique monolithic spintronic couplers are therefore much smaller than optical or inductive couplers, which require multiple die.

Nanometer
One billionth of a meter. Some spintronic critical dimensions are less than five nanometers (approximately 14 atomic layers).

Nanooxide Layer (NOL)
A nanoscale layer in a spin valve that reduces resistance due to surface scattering, thereby increasing the percentage change in magnetoresistance of a spin valve.

Nanotechnology
Technology where dimensions of a few nanometers play a critical role. NVE uses nanoscale structures to create devices with unprecedented miniaturization, speed, and precision.

Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE; also Nondestructive Test or NDT)
Methods for testing in place critical components such as airframes, bridges, or building structures. NVE has developed spintronic sensors that can locate defects such as small cracks by detecting very small perturbations in magnetic fields.

Nonvolatile
A memory that retains data even when power is removed. MRAM is inherently nonvolatile.

Nonvolatile Electronics, Inc.
NVE’s original name (see “nonvolatile” definition above). The company’s name was formally changed to “NVE Corporation” when it became publicly-traded in 2000.

Oersted (Oe)
The metric cgs unit of magnetizing field strength, named after Danish philosopher and physicist Hans Christian Ørsted. One oersted equals exactly one gauss in a vacuum, and approximately one gauss in air. A typical refrigerator magnet generates a field strength of around 100 oersteds. NVE has demonstrated sensors that can detect approximately 0.0001 oersteds.

Paramagnet
The magnetic state of a material with randomly ordered electron spins.

Pinned Layer
A layer in SDT or GMR structures where the spin polarization of electrons is fixed, usually by applying a large magnetic field during the manufacture of the device.

PROFIBUS
A worldwide communication standard widely used in industrial automation networks. NVE makes transceivers that combine spintronics coupling with PROFIBUS network protocol functions in a single small package.

Quantum Mechanics
A science relating to the behavior of matter and energy at atomic and subatomic scales. The foundation of true nanotechnology, quantum mechanics typically cannot be observed on macroscopic scales, but can come into play at atomic nanoscales.

RS-485 (also known as TIA-485 or EIA-485)
An industry standard for a network protocol used for factory automation and other applications. NVE makes RS-485 transceivers that combine spintronics coupling with network protocol functions in a single small package.

Semiconductor
A substance such as silicon whose electrical conductivity is between that of a metal and an insulator. The term does not rigorously apply to today’s spintronics because current they are made primarily from metals, not semiconductors.

Sensitivity
The ratio of output signal to sensor input such as magnetic field strength.

Sensor
A device which acquires information such as position or speed. NVE makes ultra-precise spintronic sensors which acquire data such as the position of a robot arm.

Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)
A four wire, bidirectional serial interface bus commonly used to network controllers to analog-to-digital convertors in industrial control systems. SPI busses are often isolated to reduce noise, and NVE offers unique four- and five-channel, 0.15"-wide, single-chip spintronic couplers ideal for SPI.

Silicon on Insulator (SOI)
A fabrication technique that uses pure crystal silicon and silicon oxide. NVE has a patent relating to MRAM incorporating SOI materials. The invention could allow smaller MRAM cells and lower power consumption by reducing the electrical current required to write data to the memory cells.

Silicon Prairie
Several regions lay claim to the term, but Eden Prairie, Minnesota is sometimes called “Silicon Prairie” because of its abundance of high technology firms, including ADC Telecommunications; Digital River; Starkey Laboratories; Stratasys, Inc.; SurModics, Inc.; and NVE Corporation. In addition to technology, the city is home to Fortune 500 companies C.H. Robinson and Supervalu (because technologists need to eat).

Smart Sensor
A sensors or sensor system that provides richer information than conventional sensors.

Solid State
Devices that have no moving parts. Includes semiconductors and spintronics.

Spin-Dependent Tunnel (SDT) Junction
A nanotechnology spintronic device that produces a large change in resistance through a normally insulating layer, depending on the predominant electron spin in a free layer. This allows spin to be sensed as electrical resistance for interface to conventional electronics. SDT devices use structures as thin as a few atomic layers. SDT devices are at the heart of MRAM and low-field sensors. Also known as Magnetic Tunnel Junctions (MTJs) or Tunneling Magnetic Junctions (TMJs).

Spin-Momentum Transfer (also “Spin-Transfer,” “Spin Injection,” or “Spin Torque Transfer”) MRAM
(abbreviated ST-MRAM, STT-MRAM, or SPRAM)
MRAM based on method of changing the spin of storage electrons directly with an electrical current rather than an induced magnetic field. This method has the potential to significantly reduce MRAM write currents, especially with lithographic feature sizes less than 100 nanometers. NVE has a number of patented inventions relating to spin-momentum transfer MRAM.

Spin Valve
A spintronic switch with two stable resistance states. Spin valves are used in many of NVE’s products.

Spintronics (also “Spin Electronics”or “Quantum Spintronics”)
NVE's enabling technology.
1. A nanotechnology which utilizes electron spin rather than electron charge to acquire, store and transmit information.
2. A new technological discipline which aims to exploit the subtle and mind-bendingly esoteric quantum properties of the electron to develop a new generation of electronic devices (courtesy www.worldwidewords.org)
3. A new technology exploiting quantum properties of electrons’ spin for a new generation of electronic devices (Webster’s New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition, v 0.9.6)

Superparamagnetism
The magnetic state of a material between highly ordered parallel spins (ferromagnetism) and randomly ordered spins (paramagnetism). Superparamagnetism occurs in ferromagnetic particles smaller than a critical value or at temperatures higher than a critical temperature. Superparamagnetism limits the density of conventional storage systems such as disk drives. A small applied field can order the spins in a superparamagnetic material, so the sensitivity to magnetic fields can be high and magnetic hysteresis is small. Thus, it may be used to improve the accuracy of spintronic sensing systems. NVE has patents relating to superparamagnetism.

Synthetic Antiferromagnet (SAF)
A spintronics building block using a multiple-element structure to form an antiferromagnet, which is a structure where the overall magnetic moment tends to zero.

Tesla (T)
The International System of Units (SI) measure of magnetic flux density, named after Nikola Tesla, who has been called “the patron saint of modern electricity.” Because one tesla represents a rather large magnetic field, sensitive devices such as NVE’s magnetic sensors are often characterized in gauss instead (1 gauss = 0.0001 tesla).

Transceiver
Short for transmitter-receiver, a device that transmits and receives data such as in networks. NVE offers a family of ultra-miniature, high-speed, isolated transceivers that combine spintronics coupling with network protocol functions in a single small package.

Tunnel Barrier
Structures in spin-dependent tunnel junctions that are so thin that electrons can “tunnel” through a normally insulating material, causing a resistance change. Spin-dependent tunnel barrier thicknesses are in the range of one to four nanometers (on the order of ten molecules).

Tunneling Magnetic Junction (TMJ)
See spin-dependent tunnel junction.

Tunneling Magnetoresistance (TMR)
The change in resistance between two stable states of a spin-dependent tunnel junction at room temperature. In 2005, NVE investigators reported a record for TMR junctions using aluminum oxide. Such junctions could allow faster, more cost-effective MRAM.

Wire Bond
An connection of tiny wire (typically 0.001-inch diameter gold wire) between a die and its package or other electronics. Because NVE offers unique monolithic devices, they can be wire bonded into devices for maximum miniaturization.