NVE Corporation, referred to as NVE, develops and sells devices that use spintronics,
a nanotechnology that relies on electron spin rather than electron charge to
acquire, store and transmit information. We manufacture high-performance spintronic
products including sensors and couplers that are used to acquire and transmit
data. We have also licensed our spintronic magnetoresistive random access memory
technology, commonly known as MRAM.
Our sensor products detect the strength or gradient of magnetic fields and
are often used to determine position or speed. The GMR changes its electrical
resistance depending on the magnetic field. In our devices, GMR is combined
with conventional foundry integrated circuitry and packaged in much the same
way as conventional integrated circuits. We sell standard or catalog sensors,
and custom sensors designed to meet customers’ exact requirements. Our
sensors are quite small, very sensitive to magnetic fields, precise, and reliable.
Standard sensors
Our standard, or catalog, sensors are generally used to detect the presence
of a magnetic or metallic material to determine position or speed. We believe
our spintronic sensors are smaller, more precise, more reliable, and lower power
than competing devices. Our major market for standard sensors is the Industrial
Internet of Things (IIoT) for factory automation.
Custom and medical sensors
Our primary custom products are sensors for medical devices, which are customized
to our customers’ requirements and manufactured under stringent medical
device quality standards. Most are used to replace electromechanical magnetic
switches. We believe our sensors have important advantages in medical devices
compared to electromechanical switches, including no moving parts for inherent
reliability, and being smaller, more sensitive, and more precise. Our sensors
can be customized using customer-specific integrated signal processing and design
variations that can include the range and sensitivity to magnetic fields, electrical
resistance, and multisensor elements configuration. Future custom sensor target
markets include consumer electronics, automotive electronics, and biosensors.
Coupler Products and Markets
Our spintronic couplers combine a GMR sensor element and an “IsoLoop”
integrated microscopic coil. The coil creates a small magnetic field that is
picked up by the spintronic sensor, transmitting data almost instantly. Couplers
are also known as “isolators” because they electrically isolate
the coupled systems. Our IsoLoop couplers are faster than the fastest optical
couplers.
We have five lines of coupler products: cost-effective IL500-Series couplers;
IL600-Series passive-input couplers; IL700/IL200-Series high-speed couplers;
IL4/IL3-Series isolated network couplers; and IL800-Series top-of-the-line couplers.
Our major coupler market is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for factory
automation.
MRAM Products and Markets
MRAM uses spintronics to store data. It has been called the ideal or universal
memory because of its potential to combine the speed of SRAM, the density of
DRAM, and the nonvolatility of flash memory. Data is stored in the spin of the
electrons in thin metal alloy films, and read with spin-dependent tunnel junctions.
Unlike electrical charge, the spin of an electron is inherently permanent. We
have invented several types of MRAM memory cells including inventions related
to advanced MRAM designs and MRAM for tamper prevention or detection.
Our strategy is to develop, manufacture, and sell low bit-density MRAM for
applications such as tamper prevention and detection. For high bit-density MRAM,
our strategy is to license our technology to companies with large-scale memories
manufacturing capabilities.