Ramtron International Corporation (Nasdaq: RMTR) has signed foundry deal with IBM to produce RFID tags housing its FRAMs. IBM will install the FRAM semiconductor process technology in its Burlington, Vermont, advanced wafer manufacturing facility. Ramtron said its first production wafers from the IBM facility will be produced in 2010, using the company's 0.18-micron chip process. IBM will be Ramtron’s third foundry supplier for FRAMs, after Fujitsu Limited and Texas Instruments.
BOTTOM LINE: Although Ramtron's press release does not mention RFID tags, the company told me that its deal to manufacture FRAMs at IBM's foundry was intimately tied to the a new effort to use FRAMs with RFID tags. Adding FRAM--a nonvolatile memory that can be easily reprogrammed--will enhance the capabilities of existing RFID tags, and possible enable the creation of many new innovative used of RFID tags.
