Study of intermediate magnetization states in deep submicrometer MRAM cells

Author

Min, Tai ; Wang, Po-Kang ; Chen, Mao-Ming ; Horng, Cheng ; Shi, Xizeng ; Guo, Yimin ; Hong, Liubo ; Voegelli, Otto ; Chen, Qiang ; Le, Son

Author_Institution

Headway Technol. Inc, Milpitas, CA, USA

Volume

41

Issue

10

fYear

2005

Firstpage

2664

Lastpage

2666

Abstract

The irregularities appeared in the R-H curves of MRAM cell were identified as caused by the existence of free layer magnetization vortex (type "V") and horseshoe (type "H") configurations. Both states can appear intermittently during repeat measurements and cause different types of MRAM write operation failure. Methods to reduce these states were proposed. The SAL-MRAM design can eliminate the vortex state at lower aspect ratio and thicker free layer than the conventional design.

Keywords

magnetic storage; magnetic tunnelling; magnetisation; micromagnetics; random-access storage; MRAM cells; MTJ; R-H curves; free layer magnetization; intermediate magnetization state; micro-magnetic modeling; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Electrical resistance measurement; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic switching; Magnetic tunneling; Magnetization; Metastasis; Micromagnetics; Random access memory; Shape; Horseshoe; MRAM; MTJ; intermediate magnetization state; micro-magnetic modeling; vortex;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2005.854940

Filename

1519081