Effect of Resistance-Area-Product and Thermal Environment on Writing of Magneto-Thermal MRAM

Blocking temperature written magnetic random access memory element test structures of various sizes and tunnel barrier resistance area products were fabricated in order to study the dependence of writing efficiency and tunnel junction integrity on the thermal environment of the memory element and tu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on magnetics 2006-10, Vol.42 (10), p.2721-2723
Main Authors: Deak, J.G., Daughton, J.M., Pohm, A.V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Area measurement
Barriers
Blocking temperature
Conductivity measurement
Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science
rheology
Current measurement
Devices
Exact sciences and technology
Heat transfer
magnetic random access memory
magnetic tunnel junction
Magnetic tunneling
Magnetism
Magnetoresistive random access memory
Materials science
Other topics in materials science
Physics
Random access memory
Temperature dependence
Testing
Thermal conductivity
Thermal environments
Thermal resistance
thermally-assisted writing
Tunnel junctions
Tunnels (transportation)
Writing
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Summary:Blocking temperature written magnetic random access memory element test structures of various sizes and tunnel barrier resistance area products were fabricated in order to study the dependence of writing efficiency and tunnel junction integrity on the thermal environment of the memory element and tunnel junction resistance area product. The test structures were programmed using a CPP writing mode, where the device is heated by passing a small current through the tunnel junction. The device is then field cooled to set the direction of an IrMn/NiFeCo storage layer. Quasistatic write current was measured as a function of resistance area product and for underlayers with differing thermal conductivities. Linear fits to the size dependent write current data suggest that properly designed submicron bits can be written quasistatically at
ISSN:0018-9464
1941-0069
DOI:10.1109/TMAG.2006.879726