James M. Daughton
- Associated organizations
- Honeywell Inc, IBM
- Fields of study
- Semiconductors
Biography
James M. Daughton, Stuart Parkin and Saied Tehrani each made key contributions to Magneto-Resistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) technology. The work of Dr. Daughton in sensors and couplers, Dr. Parkin in Magnetic Tunnel Junction, and Dr. Tehrani in materials and processes, when combined, helped make MRAM a viable memory technology for both military and commercial applications. MRAM is an integrated-circuit access memory fabricated with nanotechnology. Using an electron spin to store data, it has the capability to combine many of the best attributes of different types of semiconductor memories.
Dr. Daughton retired from NVE Corporation, Eden Prairie, MN in 2006; a company he founded in 1989. He served his last five years with the company as its chief technology officer, after serving as chief executive officer. Before founding NVE, Dr. Daughton spent more than 15 years at Honeywell Inc., where he was vice president of research and development and 10 years at IBM, working on magnetic and semiconductor memory devices. Dr. Daughton has served as a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Magnetics Society and has been awarded the Patent Invention and Outstanding Achievement Awards from IBM. An IEEE Life Fellow, Dr. Daughton has published approximately 80 papers and holds more than 40 patents. He received bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from Iowa State University.
