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Thermal stability analysis and modelling of advanced perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

© 2017 Author(s). STT-MRAM is a promising non-volatile memory for high speed applications. The thermal stability factor (Δ = Eb/kT) is a measure for the information retention time, and an accurate determination of the thermal stability is crucial. Recent studies show that a significant error is made using the conventional methods for Δ extraction. We investigate the origin of the low accuracy. To reduce the error down to 5%, 1000 cycles or multiple ramp rates are necessary. Furthermore, the thermal stabilities extracted from current switching and magnetic field switching appear to be uncorrelated and this cannot be explained by a macrospin model. Measurements at different temperatures show that self-heating together with a domain wall model can explain these uncorrelated Δ. Characterizing self-heating properties is therefore crucial to correctly determine the thermal stability.
Journal: AIP Advances
ISSN: 2158-3226
Issue: 5
Volume: 8
Publication year:2018
BOF-keylabel:yes
IOF-keylabel:yes
BOF-publication weight:1
CSS-citation score:1
Authors from:Government, Higher Education