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- Engel, B. N., et al.
(författare)
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A 4-mb toggle MRAM based on a novel bit and switching method
- 2005
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Ingår i: IEEE transactions on magnetics. - 0018-9464 .- 1941-0069. ; 41:1, s. 132-136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 4-Mb magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) with a novel magnetic bit cell and toggle switching mode is presented. The circuit was designed in a five level metal, 0.18-mum complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process with a bit cell size of 1.55 mum(2). The new bit cell uses a balanced synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer and a phased write pulse sequence to provide robust switching performance with immunity from half-select disturbs. This switching mode greatly improves the operational performance of the MRAM as compared to conventional MRAM. A detailed description of this 4-Mb toggle MRAM is presented.
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2. |
- Åkerman, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Demonstrated reliability of 4-Mb MRAM
- 2004
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Ingår i: IEEE transactions on device and materials reliability. - 1530-4388 .- 1558-2574. ; 4:3, s. 428-435
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The successful commercialization of MRAM will rely on providing customers with a robust and reliable memory product. The intrinsic reliability of magnetoresistive tunnel junction (MTJ) memory bits and the metal interconnect system of MRAM are two areas of great interest due to the new materials involved in this emerging technology. Time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) and resistance drift were the two main failure mechanisms identified for intrinsic memory bit reliability. Results indicated that a lifetime over 10 years is achievable under the operating condition. For metal interconnect system, the initial results of Cu with magnetic cladding have met the reliability performance of typical nonclad Cu backend process in electromigration (EM) and iso-thermal annealing (ITA). Finally data retention is demonstrated over times orders of magnitude longer than 10 years.
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3. |
- Dave, Renu W., et al.
(författare)
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MgO-based tunnel junction material for high-speed toggle magnetic random access memory
- 2006
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Ingår i: IEEE transactions on magnetics. - 0018-9464 .- 1941-0069. ; 42:8, s. 1935-1939
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report the first demonstration of a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) circuit incorporating MgO-based magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) material for higher performance. We compare our results to those of AlOx-based devices, and we discuss the MTJ process optimization and material changes that made the demonstration possible. We present data on key MTJ material attributes for different oxidation processes and free-layer alloys, including resistance distributions, bias dependence, free-layer magnetic properties, interlayer coupling, breakdown voltage, and thermal endurance. A tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) greater than 230% was achieved with CoFeB free layers and greater than 85% with NiFe free layers. Although the TMR with NiFe is at the low end of our MgO comparison, even this MTJ material enables faster access times, since its TMR is almost double that of a similar structure with an AlOx barrier. Bit-to-bit resistance distributions are somewhat wider for MgO barriers, with sigma about 1.5% compared to about 0.9% for AlOx. The read access time of our 4 Mb toggle MRAM circuit was reduced from 21 ns with AlOx to a circuit-limited 17 ns with MgO.
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5. |
- Åkerman, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Intrinsic reliability of AlOx-based magnetic tunnel junctions
- 2006
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Ingår i: IEEE transactions on magnetics. - 0018-9464 .- 1941-0069. ; 42:10, s. 2661-2663
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a detailed investigation into the intrinsic tunnel barrier reliability in AlOx-based magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) as a function of aluminum thickness and oxidation time. The intrinsic reliability is measured as the ramped breakdown voltage (V-bd) at room temperature for both positive and negative polarity. We find that Vbd generally increases with the resistance-area (RA) product of the MTJ. While this dependence is quite strong at low RA, it gradually weakens for higher RA. At fixed RA, Vbd also depends on the original Al film thickness with better properties for thicker Al. Finally, we observe a polarity dependence of V-bd which changes sign as the MTJ goes from thin Al to thick Al. We attribute the polarity dependence to the different quality of the top and bottom interfaces and conclude that the interface emitting the tunneling electrons primarily governs the barrier reliability.
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