STT-MRAM for energy-efficient mobile computing and connectivity: System-on-chip perspectives

A spintronic integrated circuit (IC) is made of a combination of a semiconductor IC and a dense array of nanometer-scale magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ). With growing scientific and engineering interest, the spintronics IC community has recently achieved significant discoveries and engineering breakthroughs [1]. Most recognized is the emergence of STT-MRAM. Key findings and advances in materials, devices, and circuits have triggered extensive industry-wide R&D efforts in pursuit of an alternative memory which may not only overcome acute tradeoffs in performance and power, but also extend physical scaling limits. In parallel, various forms of logic devices and circuits based on MTJ have been demonstrated, opening a possible path for spintronic IC to expand beyond STT-MRAM.