Materials Requirements of High-Speed and Low-Power Spin-Orbit-Torque Magnetic Random-Access Memory

IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society

Wilman Tsai¹  Shy-Jay Lin¹  Chengyang Yao²  Yu-Ching Liao³  Azad Naeemi³  Xiang Li⁴  Mahendra Dc⁴  Shan X. Wang⁴ 

[1] Corporate Research, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Hsinchu, Taiwan;Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA;Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA;Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA;

关键词: Magnetic tunnel junction;    spin hall effect;    spin-orbit-torque;    2T-1MTJ;   

DOI  :  10.1109/JEDS.2020.2984610

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

As spin-orbit-torque magnetic random-access memory (SOT-MRAM) is gathering great interest as the next-generation low-power and high-speed on-chip cache memory applications, it is critical to analyze the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) properties needed to achieve sub-ns, and ~fJ write operation when integrated with CMOS access transistors. In this paper, a 2T-1MTJ cell-level modeling framework for in-plane type Y SOT-MRAM suggests that high spin Hall conductivity and moderate SOT material sheet resistance are preferred. We benchmark write energy and speed performances of type Y SOT cells based on various SOT materials experimentally reported in the literature, including heavy metals, topological insulators and semimetals. We then carry out detailed benchmarking of SOT material Pt, β-W, and BixSe_(1-x) with different thickness and resistivity. We further discuss how our 2T-1MTJ model can be expanded to analyze other variations of SOT-MRAM, including perpendicular (type Z) and type X SOT-MRAM, two-terminal SOT-MRAM, as well as spin-transfer-torque (STT) and voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy (VCMA)-assisted SOT-MRAM. This work will provide essential guidelines for SOT-MRAM materials, devices, and circuits research in the future.

【 授权许可】

Unknown