Different dielectric breakdown mechanisms for RF-MgO and naturally oxidized MgO

We investigate the voltage breakdown of the spin transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) with perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (pMTJs). Different breakdown behaviors are observed for RF-MgO pMTJs and naturally oxidized MgO pMTJs. While the time-to-failure body distribution of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics express 2014-08, Vol.7 (8), p.83002
Main Authors: Wang, Xiaobin, Wang, Zihui, Hao, Xiaojie, Zhou, Yuchen, Zhang, Jing, Gan, Huadong, Jung, Dong Ha, Satoh, Kimihiro, Yen, Bing, Malmhall, Roger, Huai, Yiming
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We investigate the voltage breakdown of the spin transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) with perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (pMTJs). Different breakdown behaviors are observed for RF-MgO pMTJs and naturally oxidized MgO pMTJs. While the time-to-failure body distribution of the naturally oxidized MgO follows the Weibull distribution, that of RF-MgO follows the lognormal distribution. This result suggests distinctly different dielectric breakdown mechanisms for naturally oxidized MgO and RF-MgO. For low failure probability, the progressive voltage breakdown of RF-MgO (associated with the lognormal distribution) results in an order-of-magnitude reliability improvement over the abrupt breakdown of the naturally oxidized MgO. We show that RF-MgO is suitable for perpendicular STT-MRAM applications.
ISSN:1882-0778
1882-0786
DOI:10.7567/APEX.7.083002