Tech firm signs €1.1m deal with French body
By Elaine O’Regan
Magnetic Solutions, a developer of equipment for magnetic memory chip production, has signed a €1.1 million deal with the French Atomic Energy Commission.
The agreement will see the company supply magnetic annealing equipment for use in a government-backed, nanoscale, engineering programme to develop next-generation electronic memory and sensors.
It follows an existing agreement, signed in 2008, with French laboratory LETI, a developer of nano-scale semiconductors for commercial production.
Separately, the company has secured Enterprise Ireland funding of just under €700,000 to enable early-stage research into high-volume production.
Established in 1995, Magnetic Solutions employs 26 staff and has revenues of €8 million. The company is headquartered in Dublin, with offices in the US and agents in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
It develops process technology for non-volatile memory, such as the MRAM used in mobile devices, display drivers and automotive applications, and in the production of high density disk drives.
David Hurley, chief executive, Magnetic Solutions, said that 60 per cent of all disk drives produced internationally used the company’s magnetic annealing tools in the manufacturing process.
‘‘Magneto-electronics, the science underlying a new generation of semiconductor technology, is an important new development enabling industry to meet emerging challenges for high-density data storage, disk drives and replacement technology for Flash memory,” he said.
Magnetic Solutions has raised €18 million to date from shareholders, including Bank of Scotland (Ireland), International Investment & Underwriting, Intel Capital and Guinness Ulster Bank Equity Fund. Its customers include Seagate Technology, Western Digital, Oracle, IBM, Sony, Samsung, Freescale Semiconductor and TDK Corporation.
‘‘We have been in a product development phase and loss making for several years, funded by strong support from our shareholders,” said Hurley.
‘‘We launched our main product in 2007 and achieved profitability from 2008.Revenue growth has been from €1 million in 2007 to €8 million in 2009, and we are forecasting €15 million in revenues within two years.”
